PokeContestIkari Story 2: S is for Slaughter
by AsanganiKalani
Summary: Three assassins, one job: kill three girls. Sounds easy right? Wrong. Why? One of these seemingly innocent girls is a threat to all of them, just by doing once little thing involving the emotion: love.
1. A is for Accomplished Assassins

PokeContestIkari: "S" is for _Slaughter_

**Chapter 1: A is for Accomplished Assassins**

The setting is an old storage room, abundant with cardboard boxes and dust. In it, a young man is seen sorting the boxes by ship date, bobbing his head back and forth to the song that faintly reverberated throughout the room.

Unbeknownst to him, three young men lingered behind the boxes, stalking him as if he was their prey; in some ways though, he was.

"Sickhead to Bloodlust, come in Bloodlust." A raven-haired teen with a Pikachu by his side whispered into the microphone in his ear.

"Bloodlust here, what do you want?" A cold voice snapped.

"Jeez…Psycho Slash is moving in on the target, I repeat, Psycho Slash is—"

"This isn't the frickin' Korean War Sickhead, I've GOT IT."

Click.

"Thanks for the sunshine…" Sickhead mumbled to himself, switching off the microphone like his brother did.

"Pika…" Pikachu mumbled, a tad annoyed.

Sickhead and Bloodlust eyed a flash of green slowly creep behind a brown-haired man who was lazily sorting packages. Psycho Slash slowly took his signature switchblade knife out of its pocket, his lips in a thin harsh line. Engraved on the ebony handle was a bleeding rose cut in half; he had done it himself. With it firmly in hand, he began creeping closer and closer. The man was completely unaware that Psycho Slash was right behind him, towering over him.

The kill was fast. Psycho Slash sliced the man's neck from behind, creating a long thin line of blood to form. The red liquid spilled over the cut, running down his chest at an alarming rate. The man fell to the ground, blood gurgling his last groans of life. Psycho Slash stood there, fists clenched, looking down at his victim.

Pikachu covered its eyes as this happened.

Now the only sound in the room was the faint echo of the song "Hit the Floor" by Bullet for my Valentine. He sure did hit the floor, now didn't he?

"Hey, I love that song!" Sickhead expressed, listening into the song. Pikachu grinned wide, listening to the song also.

Bloodlust slapped his dense brother upside the head for making such a "stupid" comment.

"Who cares about the song? Let's split before anyone catches us!" Bloodlust uttered in his rough voice.

"Yeah, I could use a little free time." Psycho Slash admitted, crossing his arms.

"No, we need to report back to Boss." Bloodlust said, walking out of the warehouse in between his brothers.

"Come on dude, Boss has us working 25/8. Can't we just take the rest of the night off? I could REALLY use it." Psycho Slash groaned.

"Yeah man, I'm STARVING!"

The assassin that made that comment is named Satoshi, cleverly disguised with his code name "Sickhead". His "partner-in-crime", Pikachu, was his best friend in the whole world, even though it was a Pokémon. His trademark spiked black hair grew to shoulder-length, lightly highlighted with red streaks. Pikachu had the same red streak on the black part of its ears. Satoshi is twenty-three years of age, being the youngest of the three brothers. Although this young man seemed to keep a cool, mature mind on missions, he is well known amongst the business they work in to be dense, and quite absent-minded. His brothers find it impossible to discover why Satoshi is able to shoot a target right between the eyes from a faraway distance, but still find it possible to discuss why he thinks girls sit down when they pee. Perhaps, that's a mystery that shouldn't be solved, but observed with some humor. Pikachu being there also provided some sort of enjoyment in missions for him.

The second assassin is named Shuu, or known as "Psycho Slash" in the business he works in. His emerald green hair now elongated past his shoulders in layers. Shuu is twenty-four years of age, and is said to be as arrogant and self-assured as one human could possibly get. Shuu was always there to complete the mission under the team leader's command, never letting his arrogance get the best of him, but outside of the job, he was the man with a confident swagger. Besides that, Shuu sure knows what he's doing when he's dealing with members of the opposite sex. Anytime there was a mission involving a girl, Shuu was personally called to accomplish the task. No one really knows why girls love him so much, but they were glad they had him as an asset, and he would never become attached to them; he was almost like a cheat code.

Then there's the team leader for this team of elite assassins, Shinji, or "Bloodlust". His plum-colored hair grew down to the top of his pectorals, being the longest of the groups. Shinji is twenty-five years of age, and is said to have absolutely no heart. Barely any sort of emotion would come across his face, with the "subtle" exception of anger or annoyance. He always found his brothers, hell, anyone he worked with a nuisance, but always kept it quiet, or every now and then, responded with a grunt to the "inhumane stupidity" they show. Don't get me wrong though, Shinji is actually the most intelligent of the three, which is one of the reasons why he managed to be elected as team leader. He always knew the right way to complete missions, fast and simple. The toughest jobs always came to Shinji, especially involving a strong emotion such as love or friendship. It didn't matter to Shinji; nothing mattered to him. Nothing.

Each assassin had a symbol to label them instead of their real names. Satoshi's was a devilish smile in the depths of hell. Shuu's was a black skull with a red rose held securely in its mouth. Shinji's was a simple skull, except the expression on it read pure evil, and blood seeped out of its head, eyes, and mouth; a very detailed blood splatter lie behind this symbol. Their symbol was tattooed on their right bicep, and on the back of their black sweatshirts.

All stood over six feet tall, ripped with muscle, and had a threatening look to them.

With a leader like Shinji, a charmer like Shuu, and a crowd-pleaser like Satoshi, they formed the ultimate group of young assassins.

_S is for Slaughter._

"I could really care less about what you're feeling right now. We NEED to report back to boss." Shinji replied, putting his hands in his pockets.

Shuu turned to his brother. "Okay, I know you're the leader and everything, but you're really starting to get on my nerves with this, 'only work' attitude."

Shinji stopped walking, and fully-faced his green-haired brother.

"_How in God's name did my parents manage to have a green-haired kid, a purple-haired kid, and a black-haired kid?" _Satoshi suddenly thought to himself.

Shinji slowly lifted up his phone, which displayed a message from someone entitled "BOSS".

"It _clearly _says here that the Boss wants to see us, so don't bitch me about being work-obsessed."

Shuu slightly grunted at Shinji's harsh words, but they continued walking until they reached their destination. A beat-down shack with broken windows and no door. The three walked in with no fear of what could possibly be lurking in there, until they reached a small box disguised as a fire alarm. Shinji flicked it open with one finger to reveal a keypad with numbers 1-9 written in a 3 x 3 box. Pressing the buttons at lightning fast speed, he managed to unlock the secret hallway where all assassins and chairmen worked.

The hallways were dimly lit, and made of dark grey steel. There wasn't any sort of decoration on the walls, ceiling, or floor. Shinji could've cared less, Shuu would've liked something to be on the walls, while Satoshi was too involved thinking about what he was going to eat when they got home. After the long, mute walk to the end of the hallway, the four finally faced a plain, black desk. Behind it was a padded swivel chair faced away from them.

The Boss solemnly swore he would never show his face to anyone, not even the people he worked with. Then again, no one really seemed to care about the Boss's choice, only his orders.

"Job well done boys." A voice from behind the chair said in a low, menacing voice.

None of them responded verbally. Instead, Satoshi and Shuu simultaneously nodded while Shinji just put hung his head and closed his eyes. Pikachu climbed onto Satoshi's shoulder, observing the strange man who just spoke to them.

"You always know how to get the job done the best way." The voice continued.

"Well, that mostly goes to Shinji." Shuu admitted.

No one responded to Shuu's generous comment. The Boss tried his best to ignore it, whereas Shinji just didn't care.

"Yes, well, I've got yet another mission for you three to complete. I feel as though your team is the only one capable of completing this mission."

"Boss, can't we have a break just ONCE?" Satoshi asked.

"I'm afraid that's not your choice…you should be happy I'm giving you these kind of compliments."

Shinji, Shuu, and Satoshi mentally agreed with that statement, Shuu slightly rolling his eyes.

"Now, this mission may not seem so important, but it is. It's very important. It's so important, that if you don't complete it efficiently, you will be removed from The Assassins. Permanently." Boss threatened.

"Just get on with it." Shinji purposely commented.

Shuu, Satoshi, and Pikachu heard Boss slightly growl, but thankfully he didn't lose his temper.

"Your mission is to kill three girls."

In front of Boss's desk was a screen that covered the whole wall. On it, pictures of three girls appeared, one redhead, one brunette, and one with blue hair.

"That doesn't sound so—"

"What did I just say? I said it DIDN'T SOUND HARD, but it IS." Boss interrupted Satoshi.

Satoshi made no comment while a look of fright passed over Pikachu's face.

"You might want to take out a notebook or something; these girls have some info worth noticing, and I certainly won't remind you."

The three were handed small notebooks and a black pen by butlers that randomly appeared.

"The redhead is referred to as Kasumi Mist. Age: twenty-two, works at a public pool as a lifeguard, which sort of explains why she's a water Pokémon trainer. Who's going to take care of her?"

No one responded.

"Fine. Sickhead will." Boss flatly stated.

"What?" Satoshi replied, confused, but then realized what just happened. "Aww…"

"Pikachuuu…" Pikachu said in the same disappointed tone as its master.

A tall butler walked over to Satoshi and handed him two sheets of paper, containing all of this "Kasumi Mist's" information. Satoshi just glanced at it, as did Pikachu, not exactly being exuberant. His Pokémon wouldn't friendly with water types.

"Whose the brunette?" Shuu asked, breaking the short silence.

"She's Haruka Spring. Age: twenty-three, works at a lucrative family fashion industry as manager, apparently the mom's sick or something."

Shuu looked over at Shinji, a look of disappointment on his face.

"I guess I'll take her then." Shuu said.

"All right, and the last one's name is Hikari Light, who I presume Bloodlust will be eliminating. Age: twenty-two, works in a restaurant as a waitress…let me tell you something Bloodlust, this isn't the ideal job a girl wants."

"What, is it McDonald's or something?" Shinji asked.

"No, more like a strip bar."

Shinji's lips transitioned from its usual thin harsh line to a menacing scowl hearing this info on his target.

"Hn." Shinji murmured as he accepted the biography on his target from the same butler.

"So what makes this mission so terrible and arduous?" Shuu somewhat sarcastically asked.

Boss took a deep breath before speaking_. "One of these girls informed the world about this organization."_

Shuu's jaw dropped, Satoshi gasped; even Shinji's eyes popped open upon hearing that.

"Pika?"

"You can't be serious." Shinji grimly stated.

"I'm sorry to say I am." Boss replied.

"Well, which one was it?"

"We don't know, but we definitely know it was one of them."

"How could they possibly gain knowledge of this organization? I DEMAND to know!" Shinji angrily said.

"One of our assassins went in to complete a mission when they were in school, and they met this girl. Apparently they fell in love, God help us, and he told her about the assassins, and why he was there. Of course, being a girl, she betrayed him, and told the whole school about it. Needless to say, we eliminated that assassin immediately, but we have to remove this girl before she threatens the organization again." Boss thoroughly explained.

"Well, did the police find out and try to shut us down?" Satoshi asked.

"Thankfully the stupid jury dismissed the case, saying that this girl was simply crying wolf over something that happened to her."

Shuu sighed with relief, along with Satoshi, while Shinji kept quiet, eager to hear more about this case.

The three assassins eyed each girl carefully during a pause, trying to find out which one could've possibly done this. All three of them looked pretty innocent, but Shinji had a very bad feeling about the blue-haired one, along with Shuu. Satoshi, on the other hand, was eying the redhead, something about her screaming, "betrayer". They all looked pretty innocent, but you never knew what to expect about your targets.

"Listen to me carefully." Boss said, breaking the three from their thoughts. "You must complete this mission as quickly as possible, but you need to be on your guard. Always. You'll be entering this neighborhood as completely different individuals. You'll keep your regular names, but you won't be from the same family, friends, school, nothing. You three will not be related, and you won't know each other at all. That won't be hard though, considering that you look nothing alike."

Satoshi smirked.

"Tonight you'll be heading to the house on Spring Avenue; uptown. You'll all have one house a few blocks from their apartments, but you must enter and stay hidden after and before their shifts. Got it?"

"Yes." They responded.

"Good, now get out."

The three turned and swiftly walked out of the office, leaving their enigmatic boss to linger in the dark hallways.

"So we won't know each other AT ALL?" Shuu questioned as they walked out of the abandoned shack into the dangerous streets.

"Nope." Satoshi replied. "I guess we can only communicate by earpiece."

They all placed the earpieces they received, disguised as a piercing, in place and switched them on.

"It looks like that on the earpiece, you can choose a certain person to talk with." Shuu observed.

"Wait, then what's the switch that says '3' on it for?" Satoshi wondered aloud.

"What do you think? Three-way communication idiot…" Shinji mumbled.

"Oh yeah!" Satoshi beamed a crooked grin while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

The rest of the walk was silent, considering they had reached the busy part of the town, which meant many witnesses could hear their plans to eliminated the three main sources for threatening their business.

_Which one was it though?_

The house was pretty decent, but the three could really care less. There was a living room with two couches that faced each other from opposite sides of the room, a plasma screen in the midst. The kitchen had all the essentials, including a fridge, sink, cabinets, dishwasher, and a table. The upstairs had three rooms that were next to each other, each one with its own separate bathroom. They made sure all the curtains were closed, and every door and window was locked.

"Well, boss was pretty nice to us this time." Shuu observed.

"I want the top bunk!" Satoshi declared, as if they were at summer camp.

"Dude, there are three separate rooms, y'know." Shuu said whereas Shinji just ignored them.

"Oh…" Satoshi looked at all three rooms, and found one with a bunk bed.

"MINE!" Satoshi ran into the room and spread his arms out, as if protecting the room from oncoming intruders. Pikachu was nearly knocked off Satoshi's shoulder when he performed this move.

Shuu stood there, a little embarrassed by his younger brother's immature ways.

"Psh, whatever." He said, claiming the room next to Satoshi's.

Satoshi's room had navy walls, a small black loveseat, a small closet, the bathroom, and of course, the bunk bed. Satoshi closed and locked the windows immediately, sliding the curtains over it. He situated himself on the ground next to Pikachu and started going over the biography of his target.

**NAME—**Kasumi Mist

**AGE—**Twenty-two

**OCCUPATION—**Lifeguard at public pool/beach

**ADDRESS: **125 Cerulean Street

**POKÉMON: **Corsola, Gyradoas, Staryu, Starmie, Golduck, and Togepi.

**ADDITIONAL INFO: **

-Sort of tall.

-Red hair (usually in a side ponytail).

-Kind-hearted yet irritable

-Knew of the assassin who was half-responsible for telling the world about the business

-Hates bugs

"Too bad I released Butterfree, right buddy?" Satoshi said, smirking.

Pikachu simply grinned.

"Since she's a water/ice Pokémon, everyone else might not be too fond of her, will they?"

"Pikachuuu…" Pikachu's tone read disappointment.

Satoshi got the rest of his Pokeballs from his waistband, and let everyone out of their Pokeballs.

Charizard, Sceptile, Staraptor, Gliscor, and Torkoal.

"This is our target, Kasumi Mist."

Satoshi showed them the picture of the lovely redhead, Satoshi being the only one who really didn't seem to notice.

"Although she isn't someone that you'll all be too fond of." Satoshi informed. "She's a water Pokémon trainer."

All of his Pokémon's reactions were surprised, angry, and a tad annoyed. Charizard looked ready to burn the house down, considering the irate countenance it had on its face.

Satoshi put his hands up, as if trying to stop them from killing him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't really get a choice in deciding who was my target. But we can use that rage to terminate her easier, right?" Satoshi encouraged.

Everyone cheered in a sick sort of way, considering they were talking about killing someone.

"So it says here that the pool is just south of the mall where Shuu's target works, so we should be able to communicate easier. Shinji will probably just be hanging out here, considering that he'll be out at night probably."

"?" All of his Pokémon tilted their heads to the side, confused.

Satoshi smirked.

"I don't think you wanna know."

Shuu's room had hunter green walls, a king-sized bed with matching green sheets, a desk with a leather chair, and a black loveseat. Instead of rooms, Shuu's room had a balcony, so he had to cover the two glass doors that led out to the small ledge. Thankfully, the door had curtains on them, making his life a little bit easier.

Now sitting in the loveseat, he started looking over his target's information, gathering up as much as he could to complete the job just the way Boss wanted them to.

**NAME—**Haruka Spring

**AGE—**Twenty-two

**OCCUPATION—**Manager in mother's fashion business

**ADDRESS—**56 Belle Street

**POKÉMON—**Beautifly, Glaceon, Venosaur, Wartortle, Blaziken, and Skitty.

**ADDITIONAL INFO—**

**-**Works alone in business because mother is dying, dad is a gym leader, and little brother is off on his journey to be a Pokémon master.

-Short

-Long brown hair w/some sort of head accessory

-LOVES to eat

-Irritable

-Knew of the assassin who was half-responsible for telling the world about the business

-Easily flattered

Shuu smirked evilly at the last one.

"_This is gonna be EASY." _

Wanting his Pokémon to know about the new mission, he let all of them out. Roserade bowed before him, Masquerain happily chirped, Flygon stood in is majestic glory, Absol was silent, and Butterfree looked a bit tired.

"Our target is Haruka Spring, this chick right here." He showed them the profile picture of the target. She had ditched the dog-ear like look and let her hair grow down, a small green headband in the midst of her hair. What intrigued his Pokémon the most, especially Roserade, were her dazzling sapphire eyes. It was an unusual touch to her appearance, considering, of course, she was a brunette, and didn't really accentuate the color blue on her outfit.

"She should be pretty easy, considering that it says here she's 'easily flattered'."

"Absollll…" Absol muttered, a bit ticked at its trainer's cocky attitude.

Shuu ignored this, continuing on.

"She works at a fashion industry because her mom is dying or something like that, which means that the best way to get through this is to NOT mention the mom unless she brings it up, considering how easily angered girls are nowadays…oh…and she loves to eat, eh? Sounds like a perfect match for Satoshi, doesn't it?"

All of his Pokémon nodded in agreement.

"Well then…maybe he and I should switch…we already confirmed it with Boss though…"

Roserade stepped forward, and shook its head in disagreement. Shuu shrugged, giving into the thorn Pokémon's wish, and continued talking over the target.

Shinji remained downstairs, carefully analyzing this Hikari Light's profile with beer in hand.

**NAME—**Hikari Light

**AGE—**Twenty-two

**OCCUPATION—**Dancer/stripper at local club

**ADDRESS—**398 Friendship Lane (Shinji groaned at this)

**POKÉMON—**Lopunny, Piplup, Pachirisu, and Cyndaquil

**ADDITIONAL INFO—**

-Obsesses over her hair constantly

-Short with long blue hair

-Dresses up as one of her Pokémon at the club every night

-A tad ditzy, but irritable like the others

-Knew of the assassin whom was half-responsible for telling the world about the business.

Shinji scowled at the last line. He knew that this was the girl who purposely misled that unknowing assassin into a dark fate. He'd avenge that assassin in this mission, with a slow, horrible death.

However, the only discomfort he had in this particular mission would be his presence in a strip club. It wasn't at all that he was immature, and point at the girls yelling, "BOOBIES!"

No, he believed he was _too _mature for places such as those. He also knew that in order for him to gain knowledge of his target, he would have to fit in with the crowd, which meant he had to do things he would soon regret for life. Perhaps just standing in the back with Honchkrow or Gliscor by his side would scare those stupid whores away; worth a shot.

"_Sometimes this job is too much for me to tolerate…" _He thought to himself, slightly sipping his beer.

Well, being an assassin isn't exactly like walking through a rose garden, now is it?

Shinji didn't sleep at all that night, Shuu soon dozed off after going over every single detail of this "Haruka's" profile, and Satoshi fell asleep about a minute after his prep talk to his Pokémon.

Tomorrow they would officially be on the case.


	2. B is for Beginning the Bedlam

PokeContestIkari-S is for Slaughter

**Chapter 2-B is for Beginning the Bedlam**

The next morning was rather lethargic for the three assassins. Satoshi refused to rise out of bed, even though Pikachu electrocuted him with its now high-power Thunderbolt.

It was strange considering how that pesky little mouse had shocked him many times and yet he has not suffered any permanent physical damage. However, the shock seemed to move through Satoshi's body much more powerfully at that moment than he had grown used to over the years.

Naturally, this led to him succumbing to the will of something about an eighth of his height.

"Ugh…" He groaned, finally sliding off the bed, his feet thudding on the hardwood floor. The yellow mouse began to spontaneously move about the room, excited to finally begin the mission, whereas Satoshi was dragging his feet to his closet at an incredibly slow rate.

He really did despise the idea of waking up, and getting out of bed.

With a pair of red/black swimming trunks and a black tank top in hand, Satoshi shuffled into the bathroom. Pikachu confusingly tilted its head to the side when it heard the shower running, mostly flummoxed by the fact that its master didn't seem his usual bright self.

The drain of happiness from Satoshi's usual mirthful frame of mind most likely derived from the fact that it was a Monday.

Hoping that the warm water would wake him up, Satoshi remained in the compact, one-person shower for longer then he should've. The shower WAS small for him, considering he had to lower his head so he wouldn't hit himself in the head for the millionth time in his life.

He heard commotion coming from his emerald-haired brother's room. The last thing Satoshi wanted to deal with was his brothers' constant bitching to him to get out of bed and do his "fucking job," so he switched the shower off and wrapped a cream towel around his waist. Sadly, there was no blow dryer, and Satoshi's hair wasn't exactly the thinnest of them all.

Although it didn't really matter to Satoshi about how he looked, considering that he'd probably kill the target with no second to pass.

Shuu had been up for quite awhile, going over his target's information for the hundredth time while he waited for his hair to dry. Considering that his destination was a fashion business, (most likely for women), he had to dress accordingly, maybe even a bit classier than he usually did. Of course, he had to ditch his sweatshirt, and he had to make sure that his tattoo was covered.

Hopefully his brothers would remember these key factors.

Shuu opened the closet, observing the clothes that were neatly hanging from the wooden rod. He shuffled through them, until he came upon a pair of light tan khaki's, and a black short-sleeved high collar shirt that covered his tattoo.

"_Aww, screw it."_

Shuu pretty much chucked the classy wardrobe back into the closet, and grabbed his usual wear, except his trademark sweatshirt of course.

The black tank top stretched over his well-built torso, even outlining his six-pack. The baggy black/grey camouflage cargo shorts complimented the look, as well as the vintage black training tennis shoes and beanie. It seemed that in this day of age, the "bad boy" look was what girls were going for instead of the jock.

Judging by his looks, Shuu would definitely be identified as a _bad boy._

He snickered at the thought as he winked at his reflection.

Shinji could've cared less about how he looked, but he didn't want to look like some dirty pervert or something like that. He sat on the couch, looking at the biography of his target with pure disgust on his face.

"Stupid whore…" He mumbled.

Just seconds after he said that, Satoshi came shuffling down the stairs, his eyelids drooping over his brown eyes.

"Put a frickin' shirt on…" Shinji mumbled, seeing Satoshi's toned chest out of the corner of his eye.

Satoshi threw his hands up in the air in confusion. "What do you expect man? I'm going to a frickin' pool for Christ's sake! Unlike you, I'm comfortable with showing a little skin."

"Hn." Shinji grunted in response, slightly glancing at his attire that covered every part of his body. As he did this, Shuu shuffled down the stairs with that perfect smile on his face.

"Uh, dude, what're you doing?" Satoshi asked.

Shuu shrugged. "Standing, breathing, looking sexy."

Shinji rolled his eyes as Satoshi just ignored the Shuu-like comment.

"Dude, you really shouldn't be wearing that. Especially since it shows your sign."

"Don't worry man, I know a way to disguise the tattoo. Plus you're showing yours."

Satoshi shrugged. "Whatever man. I'll just say it's a regular tattoo, because it's a POOL therefore I will DEFINITELY be going swimming."

"Well, you could wear under armor that surfers wear." Shuu casually suggested, glancing at himself in a mirror once more.

"No way man. I'm not gay." Satoshi stated, putting his hands up.

As Shinji groaned at the childish banter, Pikachu hopped down the stairs at a jolly pace until it rested comfortably on Satoshi's shoulder. Shinji nearly gagged seeing that sight.

He was not one for intimate relationships…

"Well, I'm off." Satoshi said, turning towards the door, Pikachu making a cry of joy as he did so.

"Uh, dude, you might need some shoes." Shuu said, pointing at Satoshi's bare feet.

"I'm all right man, it's not a long walk." Satoshi ran out the door, leaving a smirking Shuu and scowling Shinji. They weren't strange countenances for the two assassins; as a matter of fact, Shinji's grimace and Shuu's sneer were usually plastered onto their faces.

Shuu glanced back at Shinji, who just grunted and took a gulp of his flat beer.

"Well I guess that means I'm off too." Shuu said loudly, trying to gain his brother's attention for just one second.

Shuu basked in the attention he received, as one would imagine.

"Whatever…" Shinji said, throwing the description of Hikari Light on the coffee table in anger.

"I'll be sure to get you some tampons on the way home, kay?"

Shinji growled at the closing door, sending a mental threat to his instigative brother.

"OW! OW! OW!"

Pikachu struggled to stay balanced on its trainer's shoulder, considering he hopped in the air every five seconds thanks to the blistering heat of the pavement.

"Guess Shuu was right." Satoshi said to his yellow mouse friend. "I hate it when he's right."

"Pikachuuuu…"

"OW!"

At that point, he decided to just run instead of slowly giving his feet burns, which made Pikachu hang onto his shoulder for dear life.

Despite the fact that he was getting aggravated with the heat, he still had that stupid, crooked grin on his face.

"PIKA! PIKACHU!" Pikachu screamed out in anger.

"Oh SUCK IT UP!" Satoshi yelled back.

Pikachu held back the urge to bite Satoshi with its razor sharp teeth for about the fifth time that day, since he would just scream out another loud "OW!"

We didn't need that…especially so early in the morning.

Soon, Satoshi heard sounds of children's screams and laughter, and saw what appeared to be a pool.

"Success!" He exclaimed, jumping into the air again.

He ran toward the pool with excitement, and without thinking, jumped right in, while absent-mindedly exclaiming, "CANNONBALL!"

SPLASH!

A huge wave of water swept over every person in the pool, and everyone near the pool. When Satoshi appeared on the surface, he grinned at the infuriated people.

"What? All I did was jump in a pool man!" Satoshi stupidly argued to all the staring inhabitants. They all just ignored him and continued playing in the water with their friends and family. On that note, Satoshi transitioned into assassin mode, and started scanning the area for the lifeguard. He saw the high chair, but no red-haired woman sat in it.

"Don't tell me she's off-shift!" He mumbled to himself, looking around. "Ah well, come on Pikachu, let's…uh, Pikachu?"

The small yellow mouse was not beside him in the pool, which scared him. Pikachu usually didn't go off on its own unless Satoshi did something really dumb, and it needed to blow off some steam. However, Satoshi didn't recall doing anything that stupid, and started calling for his Pokémon.

"Pikachu! Where are you buddy? Pikachu?" He called out, not getting out of the pool. "Pikachu!"

"Pikachuuu!"

Satoshi stopped, and snapped his head over to where he heard the happy cry. What he saw was something he'd _never _think he'd see in his life.

There was his spunky, defiant Pikachu being held by some strange girl. It had happened previous times, considering Pikachu's overwhelming cuteness, but his Pokémon would usually look annoyed and/or angry. Now, it looked cheery and giddy, especially when the girl hugged it.

Satoshi's jaw dropped. He scurried over to the steps out of the pool, and ran over to the girl who held his Pikachu.

"Oh, there you are Pikachu!" Satoshi exclaimed when he approached the girl.

Pikachu looked back at its owner, and pointed its paw at the girl. Satoshi cocked his head to the side, and then when he saw the irritated and determined look in its black eyes, he finally got what he was saying.

She was the target.

"I assume this Pikachu belongs to you?" She questioned, breaking Satoshi from his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh yeah man, it is." He took Pikachu from the girl's hands, and it climbed onto Satoshi's shoulder, looking at home again.

"He's just the cutest thing!" The redhead said, giggling.

She definitely was the lifeguard. She wore a red bikini that had the white cross symbol imprinted on the right cup of her top. Yes, she was a beautiful young woman, but Satoshi was too focused to realize this. Her hair was pulled into a side ponytail, and she had that white stuff on her nose, signifying her position at the pool.

"So, you're the lifeguard, huh?" He asked, trying to lengthen the conversation.

"Yup. I don't know why, just something about the water…I just love it." She spoke in a nostalgic voice.

"Uh, yeah man. Without it we'd be rotting in some pit…where mice would pull our guts out and eat them for dinner…AWESOME." Satoshi thought out loud, looking up at the sky with a ditzy look in his eye.

Although she was just a tad freaked out, she giggled. "I don't think I've seen you in town."

"Uh, yeah man, just moved here. I was checking out the town with Pikachu and figured I should stop by the pool since most of the people seem to hang out here and all." He explained, trying to sound thorough.

"Well that makes sense. I'm Kasumi Mist, welcome to the town." She introduced herself, sticking out her hand.

He shook it firmly with his left arm, trying to hide his tattoo. "Satoshi, nice to meet you, and thanks."

She smiled.

"So uh, when do you get off your shift?" He asked, wanting to know when she'd be away from public so he could kill her easily.

"…Are you asking me out?" She assumed.

Satoshi's eyes widened. "Uh…uh…sure?"

"Wow, that was quick." She remarked, putting on hand on her hip.

"Well, uh…so uh…when do you get off your shift? You never really answered that for me."

"I get off at five, so…" She prolonged.

"So I'll see you at…five _thirty_?"

She smiled again. "That'd be cool, yeah. I should be here cleaning out the pool."

"That's cool man. So maybe just a walk around town…?"

He tried to sound smooth, but he was nowhere near it.

"Yeah, that'd be cool! …Now if you don't mind, I'd like to return to my job so I don't get sued for a kid drowning."

"Yeah, that would be nice. See you then man."

She turned around and climbed up the chair, and began looking over the pool again. He watched her do so, thinking about the stupid move that he just pulled.

'_Shinji is gonna have my ass…' _He thought to himself, shaking his head from side to side.

The last thing Satoshi wanted to do was go out with his target, need he remind you, the girl who he was supposed to _KILL. _He also didn't want to spend hours with a girl who'd probably go on and on about her water Pokémon and how "absolutely amazing" they were. Satoshi frowned at this, knowing his opinion toward water Pokémon, as well as his own Pokémon's opinions toward them.

Hopefully he'd get through this ordeal alive.

"I have a feeling I just did something stupid." Satoshi muttered to the Pokémon on his shoulder.

The yellow mouse just shook its head from side to side.

"Damn it man. Shinji is gonna murder me! Man…ah well. Might as well enjoy the rest of my short life while we're here, right buddy?"

"Pikachuuu!" His companion happily replied.

"CANNON BAAALLLL!"

SPLASH!

Disappointed looks.

A grinning Satoshi and Pikachu.

A giggling, taken Kasumi.

This was the beginning of something Satoshi was too dense to be knowledgeable of.

Shuu strolled out of the local tattoo parlor, and removed the white bandage that was placed down the rest of his arm. He had wanted a sleeve for awhile, but sadly, these stupid missions and his work-obsessed older brother held him back from making him look even more irresistible.

What he had gotten was an artistic display of intertwining (bloody) roses with thorns from his shoulder down to the tip of his fingers along with the word "unforgiving" weaved through the stems. He thought it worked for him, and he certainly gained lewd looks from the array of young women in the area. Being the _suave, _flirtatious guy he was, he responded with a raise of his eyebrow, and every now and then, a wink.

They had pretty much melted on the spot. He had them in the palm of his experienced hand.

"Let's see...the place is supposed to be called Spring's Fashion…" he muttered to himself, scanning the strip mall for a small, family type of place.

Even though Shuu felt confident in just about everything he had, and confronted, he felt especially confident about this particular case. The girl would probably blush from just looking at him, and since her mother is dying or whatever, a feeling of love is probably desired, even if it is faux love…

"Spring's Fashion: Get Your Best Look Here!"

"_Cheesy, but cute." _Shuu thought to himself as he walked through the double doors.

The place was decent, like any type of business should be. The store was separated into different sections pertaining to certain articles of clothing. Dresses and suits were in the back, casual wear was more up front, and miscellaneous garments were more to the side. The check out desk was practically in his face when he walked in, and behind it was his lovely little target.

Just like the description said, she was well on the short side. She wore a frilly black skirt with a sleeveless white turtleneck, along with some casual black flats accented with a bow. Upon the sound of the diminutive bell by the door, her head snapped up to stare into Shuu's emerald eyes of fake trust.

A cordial smile appeared on her face. "Welcome to Spring's Fashion! I'm Haruka Spring…how can I help you today?" She asked, her voice not being as monotonous as he had imagined in his head.

"_Little too preppy for my taste." _He commented to himself.

"Uh, yes…my sister wanted to find a dress for her prom. Not too gaudy of course, so I decided to look for her, considering I have fantastic taste." He said, gesticulating with an open palm freely.

He had learned that this motion generally calmed the atmosphere around him and a target.

Haruka looked down at her feet and blushed a little, folding her hands together. "Well…follow me sir."

"With pleasure, little lady."

Her blush deepened as she turned on her heel and walked with somewhat of a strut towards the dress area. He followed at a leisure pace, smirking to himself.

"_I make her blush just by talking to her. Can't blame her…" _He gently shuts his eyes, his smirk growing. _"My voice is well on the sexy side…"_

"What exactly is she looking for…or are you just shopping blindly?" She asked, breaking him out of his conceited thoughts.

"Well…what do you recommend? Since you're the manager and everything."

Again, she blushed.

_Wow._

"Well, maybe a simple knee-length dress?" She suggested, a little too excitedly.

He pretended to shrug with ignorance. "Sounds good to me if you're saying it."

"Well, there are some over—"

THUMP!

Haruka Spring fell flat on her sanguine face, right in front of Agent Shuu. He suppressed his pain of laughter as he felt his face get hot, considering her skirt had gone up past her butt, giving him a view he'd rather not gaze upon.

Sure, he took pride in his devilish good looks, but he wasn't too in touch with his perverted side.

Pretending to be a gentleman, he walked over to her, and offered his hand.

"Need some help little lady?" He offered, showing off his teeth as he grinned.

Knowing she would blush even more, he closed his eyes; it had began to irritate him.

Hesitantly, she laid her small hand into his, and he wrapped his strong, newly tattooed fingers around hers.

"_Her hands are hot." _He quietly observed as he pulled her up to her feet.

Embarrassed, she lazily flattened her skirt and top, while finger-combing her hair in a slapdash manner. After she sighed, she looked up at him and thanked him. He simply nodded his head, and followed her to the back of the store.

The sound of her voice had already become bothering to him, so as she was advertising dress after dress, he just zoned out, thinking of how he'd possibly get her alone so he could finish her off. Sadly, the only idea he came up with was to ask her out. He knew that if he did, by the end of the date, he would've killed her by knife, and she would've killed him by annoyance.

"I don't know about her form, so this is really hard for me." She says, bringing him back into the real world.

Suddenly, he smirks up at her, making her, yes, blush.

"How about you try them on? She's short too, and I think you'd be a good model for her. I'll take pictures so that she can look at them later."

"Oh well… all right then!"

For about the next hour, she came out of the dressing room, posing like an amateur for Shuu to take pictures of her. He figured they could be of use later on, but at the moment, he wasn't exactly thinking straight.

Despite the fact that when he was around her, she was silently submissive, she was much to outward for him to just kill her in one night. Outgoing personalities were quite a bitch to deal with in the assassin business, considering they want to do absolutely EVERYTHING in a one-night time span.

After about the eighth dress, he told her that he had to get back to the house to feed the imaginary Arcanine.

"Oh…well tell your sister she should come by so I can talk to her about it, please?" She said, trailing behind him as he made his way toward the door.

"I'll do that." He said, turning back at her slightly.

"Make sure you come back sometime!"

"I will."

"Maybe you'd like to buy something for yourself?" She offered, trying to bring some profit into her almost dead business.

He stopped; this was his chance.

Putting on his smoothness, he slowly turned, and his eyes widened at what she was sporting.

The dress she was wearing was knee-length, which was the style she had mentioned before, and was a tan-golden color. It was strapless, and has a small black cardigan that delicately wrapped around the bosom of the dress. The heels were about three inches high, and wrapped around her feet to her ankle.

"_She looks…HOT." _He thought to himself, cocking an eyebrow.

He slightly bent down, and gently took her hand into his.

"How about Ibuy you dinner tonight?" He asks, lowering his voice even more.

"Oh…well…I guess I could close the store early tonight…maybe…eight o' clock?" She offered.

"_She doesn't waste time…must've been awhile since she has hooked up." _He observed.

"Any time would be great for you, beautiful." He says, softly puckering his lips against the back of her hand.

Her sapphire eyes widened at this, and as he let go of her hand, it remained in the air for about another ten seconds before she could finally put it down. He winked at her as he turned around toward the door.

She could barely breathe as she turned back to the check out counter to count over the daily profit.

"Oh, by the way sweetness…"

She spun around to meet his emerald green eyes.

"Wear that dress you're currently showcasing for me…it looks hot."

With that, he stepped out of the store and into the warm sunlight, grinning to himself.

Sometimes, he was too good even for himself.

Back at the house, Shinji was pacing back and forth in his room as the sun started going down.

"_Ahhh hell…" _he thinks to himself, grunting.

Shinji was no man for joking around, but this situation he just couldn't help but sneer. A stripper? Seriously? It was amazing how low young women in today's society could sink…the only people lower than them were the people that would actually go to the club and gawk in their virginity.

Girls these days never knew what they wanted from guys. There was that group of girls that longed for the masochistic prince charming that would be so gentle yet make love like an animal fueled by pure "love."

Then there was that type of girl who longed for that emo type of guy that treated her like dirt, but she still loved for some indecipherable reason. However, when that certain guy snaps for about the hundredth time, she calls in a report about rape or something, but then she suddenly has this "revelation" that their love knows no boundaries…

He snorted at the thought. Females could be such a bizarre, contradicting entity.

He would just have to assume that if this girl was so shallow, she'd be desperate for any type of love therefore he'd put on the love-dove semblance.

At least…he'd try.

He snorted again as he seated himself comfortably in one of the kitchen chairs, another beer in hand.

BANG!

"BIGGG BROTHERRRRR!"

"_Oh for the love of God…"_

Shinji absolutely _despised _when Satoshi would refer to him as his older brother. It made him feel pathetic.

I mean, this wasn't a Seto/Mokuba Kaiba relationship.

"YO! SHINJI!"

"What…"

"WHAT?"

Shinji groaned as Satoshi ran into the kitchen, that stupid expression on his face.

"Okay…look man…don't get mad…"

"Why would I get mad Satoshi…"

"Well, you know how you hate that method of asking out the target…"

Shinji's eyes popped open. "WHAT?"

"EEEE!" Satoshi squealed, putting his hands up as his plum-haired brother rose to his feet in discontent.

"Satoshi, I respect you as an assassin but right now, I'm about to start hating myself for EVER believing that. You KNOW that is NOT the way that we complete missions!"

"Oh come on, it isn't the first time one of us has used that method!"

Pikachu casually walks into the kitchen and gazes up at the two with its mouth ajar.

"…Satoshi, the guy wasn't gay."

"He looked like it!"

Shinji covered half of his face with his hand "oh for God's sake…you're pathetic!"

"You always say that!"

They hear the front door open and close, along with footsteps casually going up the stairs.

"What, no smug remark on how she totally fell for your 'sexy deliciousness'?" Satoshi questioned.

Shuu stopped and smirked to himself as Satoshi walked to the room where Shuu was halfway up the winding staircase, Shinji not too far behind.

"First of all Satoshi, I don't need girls telling me I'm sexy deliciousness, because I know it."

Shinji sweatdropped.

"Secondly, I don't have much time to think because…_I have a date."_

"WHAT?" Satoshi interjected.

"OH MOTHERFUC—"

Shinji didn't allow himself to finish as he stomped back into the kitchen to aggressively open the refrigerator door to see if there was some type of relief for his anger.

Satoshi glanced back to see Shinji banging his head on the wall. Quickly, the raven-haired young man ran up the steps to where Shuu stood with one eyebrow superciliously raised.

"Dude, you just saved my ass."

"Why is that?"

They continued up the stairs as they conversed.

When Shinji soon felt his head start to hurt, he ceased punishing both the wall and his head, and just stood there, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"_I have such stupid brothers…"_

Not knowing what else to do, he strode to the window, and observed that it was starting to get dark. Without turning his head, he glanced at the generic kitchen clock to see that it was 7:30 PM.

According to his information, the strip bar with no name was to open at eight. Sighing, he put his beer back into the fridge, grabbed his beanie and black military boots, and headed out the door.

As the sun set on the sunny city, a silhouette of a man walking with his head down, hands in pockets, and eyes closed is seen…

…Switching to one of his many facades that he disliked in every way.


	3. C is for Collected Crime Committers

_PokeContestIkari Story: S is For Slaughter_

**C is for Collected Crime Committers **

Satoshi stopped midsentence in his hectic explanation of what had happened at the pool when the vibration of a door being slammed shut reverberated throughout the house.

"Whoa, whoa Satoshi…calm down man." Shuu commented, shuffling through the classy wardrobe he had dismissed earlier that day.

"How can I calm down dude? I just went against the method we use to complete missions! If you hadn't of come in at that moment, I would be minus an ass!"

Shuu turned down to see his younger brother with his face in his palms, his faithful Pikachu by his side, patting his shoulder with fake sympathy.

"Look man, now that you've gotten yourself into it, I suggest that you use what you have of a brain to figure out how to woo this girl."

Satoshi looked up at his brother whom had his arms crossed in that smug manner.

"Well…you're the master of that subject…would you mind giving me some pointers?"

To his surprise, Shuu began to chuckle as he sat down on the couch next to Satoshi, and patted his back three times.

"Who would've thought I would be giving my baby brother advice about girls…"

Shuu chuckled at the idea once again.

"Who would've thought?" He asked again, looking over at Satoshi with one eyebrow sarcastically raised, that bright white smile spread wide on his picturesque face.

"Shuu." Satoshi simply stated, furrowing his brow with the slightest trace of anger.

Satoshi was normally not one to showcase irritation or antagonism unless it involved something dear to him. However, since his current occupation was an assassin, this normally did not come about.

"All right, all right…what I suggest is that you put on a subtle, yet attentive persona."

"Subtle yet attentive?"

"Don't make yourself seem too unique, or too boisterous…I know that'll be tough for YOU, but it's just something you're going to have to do."

"I can do that. I can't guarantee I'll go through the night without slipping once, but I can keep it going for a predestined amount of time."

"Except this amount of time isn't exactly predestined, dude. It's a _date, _not a meeting of some sort. That means that it'll go on as long as _she _wants. That's another important part…the date is purely for the girl."

"How does that work out?"

"Why do you think she said yes?"

"…Because…I'm cute?"

Shuu groaned at this.

"No, dipshit. It's because she wants to be able to drag around a guy of your stature as long as she wants. No matter how much a girl says she loves personality, the attractive feature is always essential to them. It's all a matter of competition with the other girls that are, or are not in their life."

Satoshi stared at his brother in awe. "Wow…I never thought of it that way."

"Yeah well, start thinking that way."

"So this means…that I have to ask her all the time if she wants to do this or that?"

"Exactly."

"While remaining subtle yet attentive?"

"Exactly."

"That'll be tough…how do you do it?"

Naturally, Shuu flipped his long green hair while closing his eyes, and grinning with self-satisfaction.

"I'm just that good, little brother."

A sigh of annoyance escaped from Shinji's nostrils as he continued walking down the empty road that would lead to the destination that he approached with dissidence. As if he wanted to step into a location of irreverence and sweet, sweet disrespect.

However, besides being known as an assassin who could execute any mission successfully, he was a master of multiple personalities. Of course these characteristics he had developed himself did not coincide with, say, his brother Satoshi's personalities.

That was pretty much impossible for our sulking Shinji.

He would take on demeanors that would correlate slightly with Shuu's, with his own twisted flair.

His favorite was his charming, yet sardonic personality. It had always worked on the hundreds of lives that he had taken in his young life. For his fellow humans, the tall, dark and handsome appearance that accentuated darkness in ways of thinking was the most attractive.

It was befuddling to him, yet it did not concern him whether or not he fully understood his targets' ways…just if they were lifeless in the end.

That was the sign of another job well done for Shinji.

"How is this?"

Shuu turned around to see Satoshi decked out in a full black tuxedo with a dark red button-up shirt and a black tie. Pikachu turned around as well, and literally fainted at the sight.

He had never seen his master look so…mature, appropriate.

"That depends…are you taking her on a trip to Paris? That's coming on a bit too strong, my friend." Shuu said, holding his thumb and pointer finger about a half-inch apart.

Satoshi groaned and threw his hands up in the air with irritation.

"What else am I supposed to wear?" He asked.

"What are you doing with this chick tonight?"

"This 'date' is pretty much impromptu. I'm picking her up from her shift, and I guess we're just walking."

"DUDE! Why would you need a tuxedo for that? Just wear jeans and shit!"

"Shuu, I don't think girls would particularly like a scent that smelled of shit."

"Just…get out of that tuxedo! It's just not you man."

Satoshi turned on his heel and ran back to his room to find the casual wear that Shuu insinuated would be best for this 'date.'

He pulled out a pair of baggy dark blue jeans, and a plain back v-neck. He walked back into Shuu's room, with his arms out to his sides questionably.

"I thought you said you weren't gay." Shuu asked, pointing to the v-neck Satoshi currently sported.

"COME ON MAN THEY'RE COMFORTABLE."

Shuu shrugged while puckering his lips up to the far right with amused sarcasm. "Whatever you say…"

"Whatever. I'm out of here."

Satoshi slipped on his black tennis shoes and ran out the door with Pikachu by his side.

When he heard the door slammed, Shuu glanced at the clock hanging on the wall that read 8:00 PM.

"What a great way to be subtle, Satoshi. You're two and a half hours late." He mumbled to himself.

The walk to the bar seemed significantly long as of now. Shinji was now realizing why this bar was not getting much business.

It was too damn far away from the city for people to even know it existed.

Shinji mentally shrugged at this. It was a strip bar, after all; a place for sinners, and failed lives.

He began wondering about what this Hikari girl's story was. Despite the fact that Shinji could've given a rat's ass about how people felt nowadays, it was a point of curiosity for him as to how one person could've fallen that hard.

However, he noticed that the way he lived was by taking the lives of other for his boss's, the business, and other worthless people's lives. Perhaps, there were some people that had simply adapted to a lifestyle that may seem horrific and unethical to others, yet appear to be the only method for that one person practicing it.

Life was a very confusing concept for our Shinji.

Yet, he dealt with this aspect as he did everything in life; a simple shrug of his broad shoulder.

Shuu knew that this girl was going to be desperate for someone to vent to. He despised the thought, however, if he was going to manage to persuade this girl into thinking he was Mr. Wonderful, he had to tolerate this.

Subtle, yet attentive; that was the way he practiced his occupation, his devotion; his love:

Killing others.

He had decided to wear a pair of casual khaki's and a long-sleeved black button-up dress shirt. The restaurant he had spotted out for tonight was sophisticated, so he had to bring out the inner classiness he decided to sport when he was a young child.

Nothing had exactly changed, though. Yes, our Shuu was quite the ladies man, but he knew how to be a gentleman. No, he was not a panting pervert that gawked at everything that had breasts.

As he buttoned up the shirt over his white tank top, he combed through his hair, slicking back his bangs so that he appeared to be even more suave than he already was.

As he winked at his reflection, he whispered huskily to himself:

"Let's get through this like we do every time."

With that, he flicked the light off, and turned his earpiece-microphone on, hoping that Satoshi remembered to do so as well.

He figured that Satoshi would need more some of his brother's "pointers" on the actual date.

'_Subtle yet attentive, subtle yet attentive.'_

Satoshi continued whispering this to himself as he briskly walked to the public pool where his redhead, unexpected date waited for him.

Hopefully she was not waiting for him eagerly.

Sure, Satoshi had completed many missions before this, eighty-six to be exact. However, he always had the support, (if he could use that word), of his older brothers there. With those two giving him the proper commands, he was always successful.

He had _never, _in his young life, completed a mission that was on an actual _date. _As a regular person he couldn't exactly grasp the concept of a date. He considered dates to be rather superfluous at such a young age, even though some are deciding to begin their supposed love life at the young age of seven.

He had just learned how to stab someone's stomach without remorse at age seven; he would never be able to learn how to love at age seven.

If it were actual love, that is.

He doubted it.

Pikachu broke him out of his unusually contemplative thoughts with a cry of happiness as it pointed at the public pool. Nighttime had just begun to make its glorious entrance into the ever-changing sky as Satoshi knocked on the plastic planks that separated the pool from the roads.

She had her back turned to him as she used a net on a long pole to pull out any debris that had made its way into the pool. When she heard the faint knocks, she immediately turned around and to his surprise, saw a look of disdain on her face.

"Hey, uh Kasumi!" He greeted, thankfully remembering her name.

"Hey Satoshi…I thought you said you were going to pick me up at 5:30?"

Satoshi immediately blushed and widened his eyes at this.

There goes subtlety and attentiveness for that particular moment.

"I, I uh…I…"

She smiled warmly at his stuttering, and put the pole down. He stopped stuttering as she walked over to him, and crossed his arms, trying to look collected.

"I'm sorry, my uh…mom kept me doing chores all day. I sort of lost track of time." He coolly lied.

"Oh that's all right…what matters is that you're here now, right?" She questioned, opening the gate and closing it so she could directly face him.

"Uh, yeah man! Totally!" He scratched the back of his head as he sheepishly grinned.

"So, shall we?" She questioned, gesticulating her hand forward.

"Uh, yeah. We shall!"

He awkwardly took her arm in his, and started to briskly walk forward, not realizing that he was pretty much dragging her.

"So…when did you move here Satoshi?"

"_Finally." _Shinji thought to himself.

A soft wind blew across his face as he stood before a dimly lit building by the name of "That One Place". It was not an impressive building, yet he wasn't particularly critical of its status. It was a one-floor building that had barely any windows. The one or two windows it had were where the neon-colored lights shone through into the night, drawing people's gazes. There were two men standing outside that checked people's identities, or fake identities to provide access into the building of sick fantasy.

He slowly walked up to the building and observed the ads on the dilapidated corkboards. Upon one overlook of the board, he instantly spotted his designated target.

_Hikari Light: She will certainly light your world with the sexy temptations of "adult" Pokémon cosplay! Trust me, you'll actually LIKE this cosplay! ;)_

The subtitles, hell, the whole caption made him throw up in his mouth a little. He swallowed back the disenchanting taste and calmly walked up to the guard and flashed the identity card his boss made for him and his team for this mission.

He didn't even wait for the guard's permission to walk in; he knew he was able, so why bother waste another second of his life waiting for some person's permission he didn't even care about?

Humans.

They waste their life away by paying attention to the small details, not being mature enough to deal with the paramount situations in life.


	4. D is for Deliberated Disguises

_PokeContestIkari Story: S is For Slaughter_

**D is for Dates and Deliberated Disguise**

"Sickhead to Psycho Slash, come in…please…I'm begging, come in Psycho Slash." Satoshi whispers into his earpiece in a frenzied manner.

A chuckling Shuu is heard over the light static.

"I figured you'd need me soon enough…what's up?"

"I'm failing."

"At what? Everything...again?"

"No, as a proper date. I'm surprised she hasn't knocked me over the head with a frying pan yet."

"Want me to do that when you get home?"

"I know this sounds peculiar from me, but please try to be serious here."

"You're right, sorry, sorry. What's been happening so far?"

"Well, she keeps asking me about myself, and well, I've never met a girl that isn't overly interested in herself. It's as if she's thinking up the next question as I'm giving her my response to the previous one. This is just a tad problematical for me dude, considering that I follow a method for all of my kills."

"Man…just make up stuff! You know, chicks will ask you all of this crap about you, but they don't really care about what you have to say. They just want to see how you address the question itself. Women are strange creatures, but at the same time, absolutely brilliant. They see how we answer their boring, totally unoriginal questions, and use that as a basis of what we're really like. Any guy can say that they have a posh life and an expensive car as a garnish, but how they appear and talk is the real key to finding out who they really are."

"Wow man…I never thought of it that way. But at the same time, that's a ridiculous amount of information to remember—"

"Psycho Slash out."

The click in Satoshi's ear very well could've been the click of the pen he'd use to sign his death certificate. He bites his tongue, so he can abstain from the urge to engage in a cursing fit when he saw the redhead approaching him.

"Sorry Satoshi. Now what was I asking you?"

"Umm…you were asking me what my favorite color was."

"Right? And what would it be?"

"I'd say red man. It's a very bold, yet…I know this sounds odd coming from a guy, but…romantic."

She nods in accord, marveling over how he could provide such an accurate description to back up his answer.

"I agree!"

"I'm assuming you have another question for me?"

"You've read my mind, kind gentleman."

* * *

The idea of arriving fashionably late seemed unconditionally moronic to our man Psycho Slash, or as the young lady/victim knows him, Shuu. Reaching a predestined location purposefully tardy was a move that he assumed most of the douche bags of today's world would do. No, it really was not that attractive.

And in Shuu's mind, he is anything but unattractive.

It is exactly at 8:00 that he reached the familiar outlet store where his lovely target awaited his arrival.

"_I can only imagine how eager she is." _He thinks to himself, amused.

Sure enough, after about a minute, she approaches him in the same outfit that he told her to wear, claiming she looked hot.

He didn't know what he was thinking when he spoke those words. There was rarely ever a circumstance where he'd call his target aesthetically pleasing in such an extemporaneous manner.

The past was the past, and he didn't plan on attempting to rectify the inevitable that had already occurred, thus, making it inevitable. Determined, emerald green eyes now only focused on the future, and the key to a positive future (in his eyes) was walking towards him at this very moment.

"It's endearing to see that you've accepted both my offer, and my advice." He says, drawing her attention.

He pretends to scan over her outfit with a lewd look in his eye. Looking back up at her, he sees something he most certainly wasn't expecting to see.

Irritation.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't prowl over me as if I were a piece of choice meat, thank you. I'm simply doing this because it has been awhile since I've been asked out."

"_Gee, I wonder why." _He thinks to himself, mentally rolling his eyes. "My apologies. Forgive me?"

He reaches for her hand, but she clenches both of them into fists and walks past him with a defiant flair. A little too stunned to follow, he turns back toward her to stare into sapphire blue eyes.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going to follow through with your offer?"

He feels himself flinch back a little from her statement. Not that it was in any way rude in his eyes, it was a query that was completely understandable for an unsuspecting girl going out with a guy she just met. However, her voice sounded strained, as if she were stressed about something, and taking it out on the closest human being.

Sadly, that had to be him.

But he wasn't going down with a fight…whatever it was that was pissing her off.

"Yeah man. I know how upset you'd be if I didn't."

She sarcastically grins at his comment as he walks up beside her. He doesn't make the move to hold her hand, considering if he did, lasers would probably shoot from her fingertips into his skin.

It was a boyish thought, but hell, you didn't know what to expect when you were dealing with a woman who was annoyed for some indecipherable reason.

With a simple shrug, he continued walking beside her, most of the journey toward the restaurant being silent. As they ventured toward it though, Shuu continued to be that indubitable, suave guy, thinking that he could never, under any circumstances, be ill spoken.

It was just something he could not do. He was just too good.

* * *

"Just cheap beer would be fine."

As that deep, rough voice mumbled to the bartender those exact words, the entertainment of the night finally started to arrive on the scene.

"_It's about fucking time." _He thinks to himself, exasperated from just sitting in that building for half an hour.

The interior of the building was just as disappointing as the outside was. It seemed to Shinji that it was intentionally made to look like a pigsty. There were broken pieces of wood lying around, waiting for someone to step or fall over it with a splinter as a lovely parting gift. The shades on the window shades were hanging off the windowsills haphazardly, dust and grime having collected on them for God only knows how long. The lights were also covered in dirt that had not been cleaned off for quite a period of time, as well as the tables, chairs, et cetera, et cetera.

Hell, all of the stuff in there made Shinji cringe on the outside when he touched it.

As the thud of a glass bottle rang through Shinji's ears, he met eyes with the bartender for one moment before he turned away and started scrubbing a glass.

"Hey man, I have a question." Our purple-haired incognito assassin speaks up.

It was time to start playing the game.

Thankfully, this man was more than willing to play along…

"Yeah man?"

"Do you know if umm, that cosplaying chick is here tonight? You know, the blue-haired broad?"

Once he spoke those last three words, the bartender's eyes lit up.

"Ohhhh…Hikari Light? Aww man, I wouldn't mind taking her back to my place for a little rendezvous…"

"She hot?"

"The hottest man. She'll get you hard in one measly second. You'd have to be completely emotionless for her not to weasel her way into your heart…or your pants."

"_Oh yeah. I so want that man…" _He thinks to himself.

"How much does she pay?"

"One night?"

"Yeah, even though I'd like to take her more than one night, if you know what I mean."

He winks at the bartender, earning a hearty laugh from him.

"Sadly, my friend, she doesn't offer those kinds of services…yet."

Shinji grimly laughs with the bartender once more, as if he were actually having such thoughts about a young girl like that.

Diiiiisgusting.

"Gentlemen, if I may have the honor to present to you…Miss…Hikari…Light!"

As if he were eager, he quickly turns around to see his target walking onto the runway.

Her dress resembled that of a Lopunny. She had long ears attached to her head, and a cute, round cottontail right in the middle of her rear. On her bust, she sported a brown and yellow push up bra that perhaps was a bit too pushed up, and a brown thong with yellow lining.

And, of course, six-inch heel nude colored stilettos.

"Goddamn she is hot…" He whispers, _being just loud enough for the bartender to hear._

"Yeah man…you know how old she is?"

"I don't care man, she's right up my alley, even if she were ten."

He didn't care if that statement was over the top…he was in _the zone, _and once you were in _the zone, _there was no escape.

Until he decided to escape.

"Sick man! Anyways, she's just twenty-two! Can you believe that? What a body…"

The bartender continues to stare, and seemed to take the form of a panting dog as Shinji continued to stare at her, taking mental notes.

Assuming that she had sunken so low as to dress up as her own Pokémon (He remembered from the info list) was enough to make her not the best person to know. Also, on account of the slutty Poke cosplay, it would seem that she isn't exactly the richest stripper out there…if one could say that without getting laughed at.

He continued to watch, wishing he had his notepad to remember the number of thoughts that came into his mind.

* * *

"I don't care man. I think that all Pokémon have that strength to beat the toughest opponent out there. See how far Pikachu has come? Everyone assumed it was so weak, and look at it now!"

Pikachu pretends to flex its arm muscles as Kasumi stifled her giggle by placing her hand over her mouth.

"I understand what you mean, Satoshi. You should never judge a Pokémon by how it appears to you. You'll never know what you'll get. That's how it is with my Togepi…and it is said to be one of the strongest Pokémon out there."

Satoshi widened his eyes at this.

"_She couldn't possibly have one of the legendary Togepi…" _He thinks to himself, astounded.

"You have a Togepi?" He tries to inquire in an interested, yet subdued tone.

"Yes I do! It's at home with my sisters right now though…I didn't want to have to watch it while guarding people's lives…it's so active, it's hard to keep track of it."

"I know what you mean man. Sometimes Pikachu just wanders off without so much as a 'see ya later, fucker'."

Kasumi giggles again as Pikachu growled at its trainer, obviously displeased with such a condescending remark.

To it, anyway.

"Wow Satoshi. I've never met a guy who was such a great listener." She remarks, looking up at him.

He doesn't look back. "Well, I try man. I try. Usually girls are so wrapped up in themselves they only talk about stuff concerning their own lives and well, you broke the system, man."

"I try."

Then, without any warning, she does something that Satoshi was not expecting.

He feels a small, warm hand envelope in his, and grip it tightly. Alarmed, he looks down at it, then back at her.

She was smiling.

Wishing that he could talk to Shuu, he silently panics, not knowing what to do. It was during that whole time that their hands remains wrapped with each other, Kasumi delighted to see that there was a guy that was willing to go along with her movements that have previously been described as "pushy."

She just continued smiling, not being aware of the fact that her date was about to die.

And this time, he was actually afraid of it.

* * *

"_What is WITH this girl?" _He asked himself.

The date had not gone as he had assumed it would. Usually, he would lead the conversation with enjoyable small talk that he overused to quite an extent, and she would just giggle by the little side comments he'd make about the seemingly serious stories.

He never really was one for solemnity of any sort.

However, this date was the antipode of his picturesque image.

Instead, this girl kept quiet when he would talk, and she would respond with, "mmhmm", or with, "oh, that's interesting." There wasn't a single chuckle, smile, or insinuation of interest from her concerning him.

He even began to wonder why she had said yes in the beginning.

"_Obviously she said yes because I'm hot…but I can't understand why she'd be quiet, and not even look once at me. Normally, these girls will talk a mile a minute, and stare at my face for countless hours. Normally, I'm the one to respond with, 'mmhmm', or 'oh, that's interesting.' Something is going wrong, and I don't like it. Not one bit."_

"Normally, I don't like getting into business that isn't my own, but I must ask. Is something up with you?"

She looks up at him; her eyebrows pushed up to form a frown, making her blue eyes look doleful, and bereft of hope.

"I mean it's simply a question. I don't demand answer."

Perfect. She couldn't possibly avoid that.

"If you must know, my mother's condition has just become worse."

"Oh?" His tone was perfect. It was a tone that read curiosity, but at the same time, melancholy.

He had perfected that tone over the years, and now, for about the seventy-fifth time, it had worked outstandingly.

He mentally patted himself on the back.

"Sadly, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer…"

"_Cancer in her ovaries? Ouch. I wouldn't know, but ouch." _He thinks to myself.

"For how long?"

"Oh, about four years now…"

"_DAMN!" _

"It seems as though more and more cells are becoming cancer cells, and it's starting to become unmanageable. I know my father is hiding it from me, but they asked if…if…"

He takes her hand, just like any concerned gentleman would.

As if he were concerned anyway. Psh.

"If what?" He gently asks.

"…If we wanted to pull the plug."

He flinches back, putting on the appearance of, "oh Jesus, how do I respond to that?"

But he knew how to respond…he just felt like messing with this girl's mind more.

"I'm sorry…that just sorta came outta nowhere, didn't it?" She quietly laughs to herself, looking down at the floor.

He doesn't respond.

"I figured since you asked me to dinner, maybe I could finally get it off my chest, y'know? It's been killing me on the inside, and I don't know if I can bear it any longer."

She takes her hand away from his, and settles both of them in her lap, leading him to pull his hands back to his side of the booth.

"Well, you're welcome to talk about it any time if you need to. I can understand if you don't want to, but I'm just leaving it out there as an open opportunity."

It was there that he knew she was going to reach for his hand, and when he saw her move, he was stunned by what she did.

She pulled out her purse, and dug out three twenty bills.

"I think that this will cover the bill. Thank you for a lovely time…it's probably the best time I've had in quite awhile."

As if she were dying to get out of there, she gets up and leaves without even so much as a small smile at him.

Flabbergasted, he stares at the three twenties, then back at the door where she just exited from. Now looking at his hands, he saw something he's never seen before.

They were shaking. They were shaking with insult, embarrassment, and worst of all…

Confusion.

* * *

It hadn't taken long for Ms. Hikari Light to come over to Mr. Dark and Dangerous. He knew that girls like her would be attracted to him immediately, so after that chat with the bartender, he headed over to one of the seats in front of the stages.

He didn't sit too close, or too far away. Right in the middle, a little to the left.

Surely enough, she came over to him.

"What's your name, sweetie?" She asked in a silky voice.

"Whatever you want it to be, gorgeous." He replies, sneaking a smirk in there as she continues to dance in front of him like the cheap, desperate whore he knew she was.

"Aww, you know how to make a girl feel good about herself, handsome."

"It's what I do best."

She giggles with a, excuse the phrase, horny tone, and begins to situate herself on his lap, her legs spread wide as she moved closer to his face.

"What brings a big scary man like you over here?" She asks, smoothing her hand across his face.

"To see the sexiest women in town of course. Why else? I've certainly been treated well tonight."

He dug into his pocket, and pulled out a twenty bill, and stuck it into the right cup of her bra, not caring if he touched her breast.

She would just enjoy it a little too much.

And she did.

"You're so gracious, sir."

"I wish you were as gracious as I was."

"Awwww…well why wouldn't I be?"

She rests her head in his neck and begins to kiss it, her tongue licking against it every now and then. He felt his gorge rise, but swallowed it back. As he smoothed his hand against her back, a very exaggerated moan escaped her throat.

"Oh you're making me soooo hot…"

He knew this was far from the truth, but hell…anything to get her to trust him.

As she continued to "seduce" him, he began thinking about how he was actually going to carry this out. The number one reason he did not want this stripper was because he didn't want to have to be in the situation he was currently in. However, on the assassin side, it was hard to eliminate someone who was consistently being led around by bodyguards and other means of protection. Also, getting personal with a stripper wasn't easy stuff, considering how much they feign attraction towards people.

Not only how much they do it but also how they've made a profession out of it.

As he stuck another twenty into her panty line, he rose to his feet, causing her to stumble back a little.

"Where are you going, sweetie?"

"To go see if I can find some better entertainment then this."

As he turned on his heel, he could feel her gaze on him, and best of all, it wasn't a happy gaze.

No, this gaze was pissed.

Perfect.

As he pushed the door open and slammed it close, he felt good to finally get out of that place, and out of that persona of his. Feeling his gorge rise again, he rushes over to a trash can, and retches out the couple beers that he had, plus that devastating experience he went through.

Wiping his mouth off and ignoring the stairs, he begins his long journey "home."

* * *

On the lone street in this small town, two voices, one male and one female, are heard laughing until their stomachs hurt. The male was tall, had raven-colored hair with red streaks, and a Pikachu on his shoulder. The female was a redhead with aqua green eyes, and fairly tall herself.

They were having a blast.

"Satoshi…you are such a joy to be around!"

"You too Kasumi, wow!"

"It's getting kinda late, isn't it?' She says with disdain, looking up at the sky.

"Yeah man…"

There was an awkward silence.

"So…are you on duty tomorrow?"

Her face brightens up. "Yeah, I am."

"Well maybe Pikachu and I will drop by tomorrow to see our favorite lifeguard…right Pikachu?"

Pikachu nods as Kasumi smiles.

"Great! Well I'll, see you then…!"

With an awkward wave, she turns around and heads toward what he assumes is her house.

What a girl she was. Satoshi had developed a generalization that commonly came into play when it came to women. This was mostly Shuu's doing, condering Shinji wanted nothing to do with the female gender.

Kasumi was so different though. Either she was a Golden Globe actress, or she actually cared. Satoshi wasn't the most colorful Crayon in the box, but he knew that there was something about this girl that said she cared.

He was an assassin. He didn't know much concerning someone actually caring about what he had to say.

He finds himself staring after her until he feels that familiar electric bolt run through his body.

"GAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Kasumi turns around at the scream, and sees her date of the night fried to a crisp with a blabbering Pikachu on its shoulder.

"Pikachu! THE FUCK?"

"Are you okay?" He hears.

He adjusts his gaze over to where the voice was, and sees that it's that same redhead. Turning red, he sheepishly grins at her, and waves.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Don't worry about me!"

"Okay…I'll see you tomorrow!"

She begins walking again, and as she does, Satoshi quickly turns on his heel and heads back to the house.

* * *

The walk home for the three assassins was similar, yet dissimilar at the same time.

For Satoshi, he had a night that was just a little too fun to be on a mission, but he didn't care. He enjoyed the company that didn't like to act condescending towards him. It was awkward for him to think this, but he wanted to be reassigned to another girl. It's not that he liked the girl, he just didn't want to be responsible for killing her. It was an odd thought. She was just too good to be true, and that was both odd, but thought-provoking. Thought-provoking meaning bad, bad thoughts.

For Shuu, it was straight out mortifying for his personal resume. He had never, in his life, been so humiliated by a girl that seemed to be easily flattered. Usually, the girl would demagogue him without any say, and he'd simply bask in the glory until the time came to end her life. It was as if she were a totally different person…as if she were bipolar or something. Yet, he didn't feel these mood swings were involuntary, he believed they were _purposeful._

For Shinji, he felt like throwing up again. He dreaded having to go back to that place the very next night, but he knew he had to. For the company, he had to terminate the bitch whom almost told the world about who they were, and what they did for the living. This girl was so low, yet her devastatingly good looks could easily draw an unsuspecting assassin in.

Considering all the contradicting feelings, one similar thought ran through each of their heads:

"_It has to be her."_

Right now, you're probably asking yourself, _"Im-A-Horror-Freak is leaving an author's note? She's leaving an author's note for the people who read her stories that she so lazily updates? For the people who have remained strangely diligent in checking up to see if she has updated, when most of the time, she hasn't?"_

Huh. What're the odds?

Anyways, I'm not too pleased with this chapter. In fact, I sort of rushed it. There's a specific reason which I will later explain, but I was expecting this chapter to be a bit more in depth. Yet, as I proofread it, it almost seemed iridescently vague. I know, odd terms to use for an assassin story, right? That's the vibe I received when I read over the chapter.

I don't know. Maybe I'm starting to demagogue myself like Shuu does.

Speaking of which, I'm surprised by the positive reviews this story has received! Assassin stories have always been a little…dicey. The plot could go absolutely anywhere, which is why I'm writing as I go. I love writing impromptu, because I never know what I'll think of next. Before I started writing it, I decided to check out the other assassin stories with our favorite Pokemon characters in it.

Every single one of them took place at a school.

So I thought…let's up the ante a little bit.

I see the assassin business as a gory, yet professional business. I'll let that sink in a little bit.

I feel that an assassin will carry out his or her work with precision and "class", if I can use that word to describe killing people. So I thought, why not make all six characters older, and have the girls put into areas where one might not expect, but at the same time, not be surprised by.

As you can tell, I'm not too fond of Hikari. –shrug-

So I'd like to say thank you for the reviews, and I appreciate them! I also appreciate the people who say I deserve more attention…that feels good for a novice storyteller, you know?

I realize the day I'm posting this is July 31, 2011. To my misfortune, the dreaded school, or as I like to put it, **the death of creativity**, is starting in about a month.

Whoop a dee frickin doo.

The reason I'm bringing this doleful event to your attention is because it takes up much of my time. My school is almost an hour away from where I live, and on top of that, I've got soccer practice after for about two hours, and when I get on the bus home, it's about 5:30. Once I finally reach home, it's almost seven, considering I have to drive home (( well, my mom has to drive me )) from my bus stop back to my house.

Wait, what do you care? All you're doing is reading my stories! Jeez! For a moment there, I thought I had a friend!

Huh. What're the odds?

Now for the part you guys actually care about…

This author's note doubles for both _S is for Slaughter__, _and_I Don't Want A Fighter._Due to my lack of time in the coming month, updates will be even slower then they have before.

Shocking, right?

Well, it's the truth.

I'm posting chapters for both stories today, and hopefully they'll hold you over until one of my breaks finally comes and I can begin working on them again.

I love these stories, and I adore the feedback I've received. I had doubted that people would enjoy stories that are written in a rather sardonic manner.

Well, I'm gonna stop yapping now and go back to my lovely vacation in a location that I am not going to tell you!

Stalkers. Gotta love em.

If I actually had them.

Is that a good thing?

Huh. Depends on the person.

STOP TALKING IM-A-HORROR-FREAK!

OKAY OKAY JEEZ! I'M GONNA GO WATCH HALLOWEEN!

HAVE FUN!

DAHHHHHHHHHOKAY!

With that bit of schizophrenia, I leave you to a long period of time of no updating.

~Im-A-Horror-Freak

(( 3's Nathan Jonas Jordison ))


	5. E is for Erroneous Emotions

_PokeContestIkari Story: S is For Slaughter_

**E is for Erroneous Emotions**

A loud door slam reverberates throughout the posh household as a tall, purple-haired assassin storms in. He pauses for a second or two, reminiscing about the reviling experience he just went through.

_This one was going to be tough. _

It's not as if he couldn't complete this mission, he just wasn't particularly fond of the idea of putting out the maximum effort on someone who has basically sold their life away to lonely old men and debauchery.

"_I need beer…good beer. Not that cheap ass beer I sadly indulged on tonight." _He thinks to himself as he calmly walks into the kitchen and opens the door to grab a cold bottle of that familiar substance.

Sitting himself on the plush couch, he leans back, sighs, and takes one sip of the enigmatic fluid. He closes his eyes, and proceeds to clench and unclench the body of the bottle, trying to relieve the stress of being an assassin.

In all verisimilitude, our man Shinji found this job very tedious. Simultaneously, he'd much rather practice this occupation than be some accountant or psychiatrist or doctor, et cetera, et cetera. It's not that he was a sociopath and/or masochist; it's just that he'd rather end lives for worthless people then facilitate them.

The girl he met tonight certainly reinforced his strategy on life to quite an extent. So pathetic, so hopeless…she practically made him lose any scintilla of hope for humanity he quite possibly could've possessed. What's the point of trying to help someone who has already trained their mind to be ignorant to any type of intuition? What's the point of being the "good friend"? If anything, the good friend would make this person more and more ignorant. When one becomes ignorant, they immediately dismiss any other kind of idea, meaning that the slight mention of another idea "fuels the fire", per say, and makes them turn an even harsher cold shoulder.

So maybe ending this girl's life would do her more justice than anything else.

"_I'm pretty sure the family ditched her, on account of her job of choice as of lately." _He thinks to himself.

This girl was going to drive him—excuse the elementary term—_bananas._

**SLAM!**

Shinji bolts upright due to the abrasive sound, clenching his fist so he can be ready to slug whoever broke him from his pacifying frame of mind. When he sees a flash of green rush into the room he currently situated himself in, he decided to relax a little, considering that whenever his brother displayed such animosity, there was something wrong.

"Unbelievable…this is just unbelievable…UNBELIEVABLE! She is so…unbelievable!"

…Shinji also recounts hearing Shuu repeat the term "unbelievable" innumerate times whenever something didn't go his way.

It's the hard knock life for our dark, dangerous, purple-haired assassin.

"What's unbelievable…"? Shinji mutters, loud enough for Shuu to hear but at the same time, to let him know that he wasn't particularly intrigued.

"HARUKA SPRING IS WHAT'S UNBELIEVABLE!"

"Humph…" Shinji mumbles in response as his brother situates himself in the armchair that sat opposite of the couch he now sat on.

"Bro, you will not believe this girl, okay? …Shinji? Are you listening?"

"Yes."

Shuu leans forward, folds his hands together, rests his elbows on the ottoman, and places his chin on top of his hands, closing his eyes. As he did so, what had happened that night flowed into his mind uninvited. He uncomfortably shrugs it off, and begins explaining.

"So when I first meet this chick, she's all sanguine and chipper. She's practically giving me permission to mess with her little head. So tonight, since it was a date, I'm putting on my A game, right? Well, I show up at eight on the _dot, _if I may add…and of course I'm staring her down because I…I want her to feel, uh, what's the word…hot around me, okay? I want her to feel like she makes me hot, which is not true in the slightest. So what does she say? _'I'd appreciate it if you didn't prowl over me as if I were a piece of choice meat, thank you.'"_

Shuu changes his inflection so that his deep voice was about ten times higher, giving the impression that he was mocking a female.

Shinji is now intently listening. Sure, girls were inhumanely moody, but this just wasn't normal for a girl after dealing with Shuu.

Even though Shuu was a big flirt, he was a _professional _at it.

"Anyway we're sitting there in the restaurant, and of course, my method begins with idle chat, vague stuff, you know? All she says in response is, '_uh huh,' 'that's interesting', 'oh wow"—_He changed his pitch there again—"I mean that sounds like something I would say in response to some dumb story she has, right?"

Shinji nods, his eyes going to different places of the room while Shuu yapped on and on. His analytical mind went all over the place, trying to decipher as to why this girl was so…odd.

"Then you won't believe this. At the end, she suddenly lays on me that her mother has ovarian cancer! CANCER, Shinji!"

"Uh huh."

"I mean, as a date, how was I supposed to respond? I couldn't laugh out loud like I usually would!"

"So what did you do?"

"What do you think? I sat there like an idiot! As if I were some mute-stricken monkey. It was extremely mortifying. Then she rubs salt in the wound by laying down three twenties to cover the meal."

"Huh."

"THAT CASTRATING BITCH! I COULD'VE PAID FOR IT I MEAN REALLY! _I'M _THE GUY! THIS GIRL NEEDED A DICTATOR, AND _I _AM THE DICK!"

Shuu's yelling was really starting to irritate Shinji, so he decides to shut him up and explicate his thoughts.

"It sounds to me that either this girl is smarter than she seems, you're having some type of breakdown, or she's just very moody." Shinji states.

Shuu rubs his temples and sighs, "how about all of the above?"

"I wouldn't lose sleep over it. It's just one girl. She'll be dead in less than a week, I bet."

"After that performance tonight, either I'll kill her in her sleep tonight or, or…"

Shinji observes his brother. In some ways, it was entertaining to see him squirm over one girl since he possesses a cosmopolitan history when it comes to the female gender. Yet, at the same time, it frightened him a little to see that Shuu was having trouble. Shinji would never admit that he might have some trouble with his subject as well, but he couldn't help but keep it in the back of his mind.

It was just so astounding to see the great Shuu at loss for words.

"Look man, you've just got to keep your cool. If you don't, then this mission will never be a success." Shinji reiterates.

"Well sure…I'm pretty sure that this chick is the one who almost screwed over the whole business…"

"I beg to differ."

Shuu looks up at Shinji with stressed green eyes. "How so?"

"I literally retched after dealing with that girl."

"Was she hot?"

"…Shuu. I just said I puked after being in her presence."

"Oh. So ugly?"

Shinji facepalms. "That's not the point. It's as if this girl has ditched any idea of having a regular life."

"Since when are you the poster boy for a regular life?"

"Regular was a bad term. Intellectual fits more."

"Intellectual, eh? Since when does killing involve intelligence?"

"You'd be surprised. You have to know how to do it quickly and to not leave a trace; for example, antifreeze. Antifreeze is one of the best, yet silent killers that exist on this earth. It is basically ethylene glycol, which has a sweet taste. If one were to put it in something normal such as Jell-O, cake, or even a glass of milk, they'd never think they were being poisoned. Perhaps you should keep that in mind the next time you take your target out for a date."

Shinji smirks as Shuu rolls his eyes.

"Anyway," Shinji starts again, "this girl makes me more and more flummoxed the more I think about how to rid the world of her. I'm sure the family has ditched her, right? Having such a terrible job probably made them efface her from the family altogether."

"Since when does the family come into play here? All we do is kill them without thinking, dude."

"You're right, but this case is much different."

Shuu throws his hands in the air, "she's just a stripper dude. You're overanalyzing again."

"I'm not overanalyzing. I'm just trying to complete this mission intellectually, yet quickly."

"You're not exactly being subtle, right?"

"I can't be subtle when it comes to a girl dry humping you for profit."

"Be subtle tomorrow. You gave her a lot tonight, right?"

"I presume…"

"Then don't give her anything tomorrow. I assume you pissed her off, right?"

"Like I usually do, yes."

"Well, tomorrow, don't do anything. Just show up. She'll try to jump you immediately, and all you do is walk away. That's all you do…just walk away. It's what I call the 'give and take' method."

"That's what I planned to do. She'll follow me like a lost duckling I presume."

"Exactly. Women are needy like that."

"Ugh. Women."

"You're so asexual, Shinji."

"You're such a male chauvinist pig, Shuu."

"This is true. But you know what?"

"What…"

"_I love it."_

He grins that toothy white grin, leaving Shinji to just roll his eyes and lean back on the couch again. Shuu laughs once and leans back as well.

"You know bro, I've never thought we'd have any type of trouble with a job, especially when it involves women…" he brings up.

"If you contemplate on it for too long, then it'll become true."

"Come on. You can't deny that this girl is making you run in circles."

"For the stupidest reasons."

"You're just too smart for this girl, dude. Maybe we should switch…?"

"So I can have your irritable beast of a target? I think not."

Shuu nonchalantly shrugs. "Worth a shot. Hey, get me a beer, would you?"

"Get it yourself, fuckface."

"No, fuckface."

"Well you're shit outta luck, fuckface."

"You're a fuckface."

"YOU'RE the fuckface."

Shuu rises to his feet, attempting to make himself look bigger than Shinji, but the faint sound of the door being gently shut distracts them both. The sound of the door shutting was followed by a nostalgic, soft sigh.

"Satoshi?" Shuu calls out.

They hear a gasp, and following the sounds of running footsteps, there stood Satoshi, Shinji and Shuu's cooky little brother with that crooked grin of his and a sleep Pikachu resting on his shoulder.

"How are you guys doing?" He asked.

"Uh, nothing…" Shuu comments, raising an eyebrow, "we're were just discussing tonight's results…"

"Oh, mind if I join?"

"I was going to tell you that you should join, so…yeah…hey get me a beer would—"

"Sure thing!"

Satoshi sort of skips into the kitchen and fetches two beers, chucking one to Shuu before sitting next to Shinji on the couch.

"So how did tonight go? She annoyed as hell that you were late?" Shuu snickered.

Shinji remained silent, observing Satoshi's reaction.

"No actually! She was just happy that I showed up, that's all."

"So no hitting, no yelling…nothing?"

"Nope."

"Oh…so I guess we can rule her out as the target?" Shuu proposes.

"No." Shinji immediately responds. "One…ugh…date isn't going to tell if they are the perpetrator or not. We need to do at least three tests, if not more."

"Sounds good to me." Satoshi says.

There is a small pause before Shuu starts talking again.

"So what was her demeanor? …In a few short words."

"Well she listens, is caring, and laughs a lot. She thought I was so funny...it was a little awkward but hey, I didn't mind being thought of as humorous."

Shuu closes his eyes, "okay…"

"I mean she is just so easy to talk to, and she's fun, understands everything I say...isn't that so weird? I mean really..."

At that moment, Shinji gets up, stands in front of Satoshi, and after about three seconds of harsh staring, he punches him square in the jaw.

"OW! YOU JACKASS YOU'RE DEAD!"

Shinji simply sticks his hand out, palm facing toward Satoshi to stop him right in his tracks. Satoshi pathetically tries to nail Shinji in the face, but comically fails while making high-pitched groans of disdain.

"I knew this would happen…this is why I don't approve of the dating technique." Shinji says.

He turns back to Shuu who seems rather amused by what had just occurred in front of his eyes.

"Look what's happening to you! You of all people, Shuu, shouldn't be so stressed out over something like a girl."

He then turns back to Satoshi, whom is glaring at him with eyes full of fire.

"I decided to give you a chance, and what happened is exactly what I thought would. You are starting to fall for this girl."

Satoshi's jaw drops. "I AM NOT!"

Shinji socks him again, sending him onto the couch, rubbing his jaw while pouting.

"You are, and I can tell. You're voice gets higher when you talk about her, you're actually TALKING about her, and you're becoming very frilly and girly. I hate to use such terms but it's the truth. There is no way I'm going to let this happen though, _no way_."

He migrates to the center of the room, attracting the attention of both brothers. Shuu looks upon his brother with a rather sarcastic while Satoshi remained relatively irate.

"We are assassins. We remain loyal to our boss, and what does our boss want us to do? He wants us to kill the people that hurt him in any sort of way. He does not want us to fall in love, worry about blemishing our personal resume as a womanizer, or anything else. We need to complete the mission with no regrets, no second thoughts…just intellectual strategizing and thorough completion. Get it?"

Shuu nods while Satoshi just glares.

"Tomorrow, we'll take on a whole new approach. I'm going to tell you two what you need to do, relying on the fact that you'll be able to complete them without any further complications."

Satoshi says nothing, but Shuu stands up to speak, assuming of course that at this moment, if you wanted to speak, you should gesticulate that you do by standing. All through his speech, he maintains that sarcastic countenance.

"Um, no, big brother. We're in this mission too, not just you. If you want to complete it on your own, be my guest. But while Satoshi and I are in this, we'll complete the mission any way we want to. We're all different, I know that. YOU know that out of all three of us. You just need to trust that we can do this on our own. You never know, Satoshi might have something big planned to squeeze the information out of the redhead by being a Casanova. Just trust us."

Shinji sighs through his nose, and looks back at Satoshi who is staring at his feet, mortified by how he was acting before. He was an assassin for God's sakes! How could he possibly think of actually going the distance with a girl he had to kill? It was ridiculous, and he knew it.

"Shinji, I apologize. My behavior earlier on was absolutely unacceptable. I will complete this mission the way you want me to, but at the same time, I'll use my tactics as well."

"I do trust you both, but now it seems that things are starting to go downhill, and I need to stop it as soon as it starts."

Shuu smirks. "You were always the overachiever."

Shinji turns to him. "And you were always an ass."

"And I'm always Satoshi!"

There is a short pause as Satoshi looks over at a now sleeping Pikachu.

"Well, I'm going to head off to bed."

Satoshi rises to his feet, cradling Pikachu in his arms as he walked up the stairs. As soon as Satoshi's door is shut, Shuu turns to Shinji.

"So what're you going to do tomorrow since Satoshi and I know what to do?" He asks as they both make their way to the stairs.

"Exactly what I did tonight. Lose my dignity over and over again." Shinji states.

_"More like lose my mind over something pathetic."_

* * *

Hey! I'm not dead! :D

I'm not happy with this chapter...it was sort of another pondering chapter. I'm trying to spice up the story a little bit. I'm afraid that people might not get the moral of it, if there IS one...it's about assassins, Im-A-Horror-Freak...jeez...

But yeah this chapter was rushed again, and I'm sure you can tell. ^^;

Hey, that reminds me, if any of you have a dA account, go check out mine! It is unoriginally called Im-A-Horror-Freak as well...just thought I'd put a shameless plug in there. No biggy.

But anyway yeah I wanted to start on S if For Slaughter again, since I Don't Want A Fighter, I believe, is losing its mojo...I feel I'm rushing that one but hey, it's my first story, leave me alone! D: just joshing, I could use the constructive criticism as a neophyte writer.

This one is going to be very convoluted and rapt up in itself, I'm afraid. I just don't want it to be a stereotypical, "hey, they're assassins with no hearts, but they fall in love anyway" kind of story. So yeah. Excuse the circumlocutions and over analytical thoughts over seemingly simplistic thoughts.

Do all of them fall in love though?

Huuuuuuh. You'll just have to keep reading!

**~Im-A-Horror-Freak 3**


	6. F is for Fundamental Formulas

PokeContestIkari Story: S is for Slaughter

**F is for Fundamental Formulas**

All three assassins woke up with a refreshed sense of what they do. They went through immense, perilous training to become what they are today, and they weren't going to let it go to waste. They could not continue to practice these mumpsimums that have been developed...it was unreasonable quite frankly, stupid. They had been on more missions together than any other assassin in the business singularly. Shinji and Shuu couldn't even begin to count how many missions they had been on!

...Whereas, Shuu kept a record of every girl he wooed, how he wooed her, and, of course, how he annihilated her.

Natheless, the exchange of perorations last night certainly revitalized them, and they all were eager in their own way to get the day started. So, what's a better way to start off the day then being shocked by innumerate watts of electricity by your best friend in the whole world?

"OOOUUUCCHHHH! PIKACHUUUUUUU!" Satoshi screamed out, twitching from the shock. "YOU'RE BEING A BUTTHEAD!"

"Butthead? You're going into what grade?"

Pikachu stopped its Thunderbolt and looked at the door with an inquisitive countenance. Shuu stood there, shirtless, with a towel wrapped around his shoulders; as if he had just returned from a California beach. Satoshi groaned and looked up as well to see his brother looking more excited than he usually did.

"Shut up. I bet you'll understand when Flygon hits you with Dragonbreath."

"That'll be the day. Come on, hurry up we've gotta get ready. Shinji wants to talk with us before we leave."

Satoshi stood up, Shuu's words having discombobulated him. "Again? Man, I thought we did enough talking last night."

"Well, apparently that's not the case." Shuu then walked closer to Satoshi, and discreetly whispered into his ear: "between you and me, I think Shinji is stressed out about this case."

"No way, Shinji?" Satoshi whispers back, Pikachu looking up at both of them, listening in.

"Hey man, I have to admit I'm a little stressed out too. Who would've thought a girl that didn't find me drop dead sexy would exist?" He shrugged and made his way out of the room, taking the towel and rubbing it against his hair. Sighing, Satoshi rose to his feet, not even bothering to take a shower.

"_I'm going to a pool. There is no valid point as to why I'd shower beforehand. What idiot would do that? Not me. Not Satoshi."_

He smirked to himself, but then stopped.

"…_Is this really what I think about during the day?"_

Meanwhile, Shinji sat on the couch, having been up for a couple hours, thinking. He wasn't thinking about anything in particular, rather, he was just thinking. His purpose in life was to kill people; ironic isn't it? He was given life to take away lives…what could he say, it was a cruel world he lived in. As he thought about it, some other occupations were rather odd to be existent.

Like, being a stripper, or a professional athlete, or a stripper, or a food analyst...or a fucking stripper.

"Okay, we're here."

Shinji snaps out of his thoughts and sees Shuu in dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt with Satoshi who was dressed for the pool once more.

"As we addressed last night, we need to start switching into full-on assassin mode. There will be no more of these frilly, beat-around-the-bush methods, all right? It just wastes time. So, I'm issuing that these girls be annihilated in at most three days."

"Three days? You're out of your mind!" Satoshi said.

"How the fuck can we kill someone in three days tops? That's unethical. We need at least a week."

Pursing his lips in disgust, Shinji grabbed Shuu by the arm and pulled him away.

"Okay, just leave me here high and dry." Satoshi commented, looking up at the ceiling, discontent in his eyes.

"If I give you a week, you'll just waste more time." Shinji whispered.

"Fuck no. We're assassins too, Shinji. We know how to get the job done…we just have different methods."

"Well then let's go back to the fucking beginning."

"Oh are we gonna be fucking cavemen?"

"No shithead."

"Sign me up for a fucking club to whack your head off!"

"_Man, I feel so unwanted."_ Satoshi thought. _"It's times like these that I wish going into the family business wasn't the sole option."_

"We're going back to the basics, all right? Nothing too convoluted or any of that shit. We're just gonna head in, gain their trust, and see what happens."

"Man you got the stripper though they have no perception as to what 'trust' is! You've got it easy! Mine is an absolute monster!"

Shinji grabbed him by the collar. "Then tame her."

"Tame?"

"I'd think that you'd know what I mean by that."

"You'd think that I'd know what you mean too."

"…What?"

"…Yeah I'm just going to go." Satoshi yelled out, pointing his thumb towards the door.

"WAIT!" Shinji called out, putting his hand up. "I need to speak with both of you _now_."

"Fine." Satoshi said while Shuu rolled his eyes and joined the circle.

"We're heading straight in. Gain their trust, get them alone, and slit their throats. Shoot them in the head. Strangle them. I don't care. But we're getting have our heads mounted on his wall."

"They do that now?" Satoshi asked.

"…Satoshi, we're just going back to the books for this one, okay?" Shuu explained, patting his little brother's shoulder.

Satoshi stopped for a second, but then nodded in accordance. "Right."

"Look guys, I'm not too eager about this mission but we are assassins. Our job is too—"

"Oh my Arceus above me WE KNOW." Shuu interrupted, putting his hands up. "Kill people who are threatening to the business, protect the boss, dignity, blah, blah, blah…"

Satoshi held back his laughter as Shinji grunted.

"Report back at the house at six sharp. We'll have a postmortem discussion, because that's prior to my departure for hell."

"Gotcha." Shuu replied, nodding his head once, Satoshi as well.

"Right, well, dispatch."

Satoshi turns on his heel and walks quickly to the door, Pikachu resting comfortably on his shoulder. Shuu and Shinji couldn't see it, but he had the biggest smile on his face.

He didn't know why he was smiling though.

As of now, he was going to start the plan to annihilate one of the few people who tolerated his shenanigans while being genuinely entertained by them. The way she had looked at him the night before was something he'd never seen before. She had his head spinning, and he absolutely hated it.

When he caught sight of the pool, he felt his chest begin to hurt.

"Man Pikachu, we probably should've gotten something to eat, huh?" He remarked, patting his stomach...even though it was his chest that was hurting.

"Pika!"

With the subject of food in mind (despite it never leaving),Satoshi had decided to go get some. There was no such thing as too much food after all; in his mind at least. Besides, this town offered quite the collection of culinary goodness. He could go for a bowl of ramen or just a good ol' double decker bacon cheeseburger with every condiment in existence on it.

Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

* * *

"Well, aren't you going to go?" Shinji asked, gesturing towards the door that Satoshi just left from.

Shuu turned to Shinji and said, "You are the weakest link. Goodbye."

With that, he turned for the door, not missing a smooth step, and headed out to the shopping complex. He had made sure that he dressed down for the occasion; coming on too strong was a big no-no in his big book of flattery. A simple man was the best man; he could offer things that were of little value yet of most importance. He couldn't buy her a first class meal, but he could give her wisdom for the rough road of life that was sure to come.

Well, he could play that role to perfection…

He shrugged. _"Close enough."_

Soon, he saw Spring's Fashion, and he stopped for a second.

He started to contemplate on what the "basics" really were. For Shinji, it was easy peasy lemon whatthefuck. For Satoshi, well, the first step for him was to view her as a _target…_not a…whatever he saw her as.

Shuu then decided he was going to play it simple, meaning, he'd go as the sympathizing guy. He'd go in there, give her the most sincere of apologies, and try to make it up to her. He'd utilize that masterful tactic where he'd make his eyes water, appearing verklempt. In a simpler form, he was just going to be the nice guy.

Although we all know that _nice guys finish last._

* * *

At the exact moment where Satoshi bit into that cheeseburger, Shuu started walking toward the store, and Shinji drank his first beer of the day, it was clear.

**The boys were back in town.**

* * *

"CANNON BALLLLLLLL!"

Kasumi snapped her head up when she heard that familiar voice.

"_Oh no, not again…" _she instantly thought as the sound of a large splash came into her ears.

As well as the sound of discontent people.

"It's a public pool man, relax!" Satoshi said to all of them as Pikachu rose to the surface.

Kasumi giggled to herself, trying to focus on her work rather than the vibrant young man and his happy Pokemon.

After splashing around a little, Satoshi stopped and started thinking about what Shinji said.

Well, what Shuu explained to him what Shinji said.

"_Basics, basics…what does that mean? Where do I start?" _He thought to himself.

When Satoshi thought of basic, he thought of simplicity and leisure, idle chat. He wasn't exactly the master at subdued, but he could give it a shot and see what he gets. Rising out of the water, he wrung his hair out and walked over to the lifeguard's chair.

"Hey, uh Kasumi?" He called up to her.

She looked down and when she saw him, a small smile formed on her face.

"Hey Satoshi!" She replied, jumping off the chair with the most grace he's ever seen in his life.

"Uh, uh hey!" He replied, immediately scratching the head of his head.

"What's up?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well, uh…" He began to stall.

Pikachu chirped to grab Kasumi's attention, hoping for his master to come up with a topic of discussion soon.

"Your Pikachu is just the cutest thing!" She picked it up and began scratching behind its ears.

"Chaaa!" It cooed, snuggling up to the redhead.

"I just wanted to say last night was really awesome." He finally said, not looking at her.

"Yeah I had fun too." She smiled at him.

"…Yeah." He absent-mindedly replied.

"…Not to be rude, but is that it? Because I kinda have to go back to my…y'know, job." She said, motioning toward her chair, smiling a little.

"Oh yeah right! Well uh, yeah that's it! ACTUALLY WAIT NO!"

Kasumi flinched back a little from his sudden loudness. "Are you…okay?" She genuinely asked.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!"

By now, our friend Satoshi had gained quite a few stares for his behavior. Everyone at the community pool knew that Kasumi was a looker as well as a good person, so seeing a man nervous around her was just status quo.

However, this was just embarrassing; even for them.

"Have you ever had the burgers here?" He asked.

"Well sure…I've lived here all my life." She replied, giving him a confused look.

"You have?"

"Yeah, I told you last night…" She said, her inflection representing confusion.

"…OH THAT'S RIGHT!" He said, grinning.

She smiled back, suddenly feeling awkward.

"Well I'll bet that…you've never…had one with…me?" He said, his voice getting squeakier with every word.

She chuckled. "No, I reckon I haven't."

"Well then maybe you…should…do that."

She raised an eyebrow. "Is that a command or an offer?"

"It's more like a 'please, please go with me for a burger'."

She fully grinned. "I'd love to but…I'm on my shift until three—"

"THAT'S FINE I'LL WAIT!" He loudly interrupted, making Pikachu jump.

Kasumi jumped as well. "Umm…great! Uh…try not to cause so much commotion, okay? If my boss finds out that I know 'that guy who's always pissing people off' I might get fired."

"No problem! I wouldn't want to be responsible for your starving to death!"

He smiled wide at her as Pikachu jumped from her arms and went back to his shoulder.

Her face was absolutely priceless. "Right, well…I'll see you later."

She walked off to the little kid section of the pool and watched over them for awhile; mostly, she just wanted to get away from that crazy kid.

That crazy kid who had absolutely no idea as to what _subdued_ was.

* * *

After taking a deep breath, he calmly walked into the store to see her standing behind the register fervidly punching numbers into her calculator and writing down various business-related…stuff.

_"Academy Award, here I come." He thought to himself._

"Umm…hi." He began, slowly making his way up to her.

She glanced up at him once, looked back down, then gave him her full attention.

"…Hi." She said, walking away from the register to one of the random sections.

"Can we talk for a second?" He asked, trailing behind her.

"I'm a little busy right now."

"Not that I know anything about business, but there's no one in here except you and I." He pointed out.

She stopped fiddling with one of the dresses and looked at him. "It's early, some people might come in…I need to make sure the store is spotless."

"It is spotless. Please, just one minute."

He loved the idea of begging. It gave her the idea that he was willing to push aside anything just to have her attention. Plus, it was kinda hot when a girl did it.

Kinda.

She heaved a sigh. "Fine. One minute."

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry if I offended you in any type of way last night. I didn't realize the gratitude of the situation you were in."

"_Hmm…whoever knew I was such a pro at the nice guy façade."_

She looked down at the ground, refusing to make eye contact with him.

"I would really like to make it up to you though." He added, trying to sugar her up a little.

"Would you now?" She asked, looking up at him with incredulous eyes.

"Yes, I would." He affirmed.

"Well that's sweet of you, but I'm fine thanks. I just needed one night out that's all."

_"One night of hypothetically ripping my balls off?" _Shuu thought to himself, mentally rolling his eyes.

"No, you need to relax. I could tell then, and I can tell now that you are stressed out." He said, following her around the store as she tried to abstain from him.

He walked closer to her and grabbed her shoulders lightly, looking straight into her eyes.

"Please, let me help you any way I can." This was his best, and he really wished someone else was watching.

Her eyes suddenly changed from hostile to vulnerable; even the tone of color changed.

_"I never realized women could be this bipolar..."_

"…Actually, you know what would really do me well?" She suddenly spoke up, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"If it's not too much trouble, well...I need some extra help around here. As you can see, I'm the owner, manager, and employee population right now. Do you have a job?" She asked.

He felt his eyes widen for a split second, but maintained his cool. "Will it help you out?"

She laughed a little. "You have no idea."

He bent over to hold her hand and stroke the top of it with his thumb.

"Then I would be _delighted."_

"…Really?" She asked, her face lightening up a little.

"Absolutely."

A huge smile broke out on her face, him softly smiling at her in return.

"Oh my gosh, thank you! Well, your salary will be—"

"Oh, no need for a salary." He interrupted her.

She furrowed her brow. "You have to have a salary though…not only is it against the law here, but it's just not right."

He walked closer to her. "I know what situation you're in right now, and you need all the money you can."

For the first time in a long while, she smiled at him.

"You are truly an angel."

Before he could sarcastically reply with, "_that's what they tell me," _she fully embraced him in a warm hug, showing just how much she appreciated his "hospitality. When she let go, he was a little stunned.

"...Th-That's what they tell me." He said, putting that smirk on to save himself and his dignity.

"When can you start?"

"Whenever you want me to, darling."

"Great, how about now?" She offered, running back up to the cashier.

"Sure; what should I do?"

He walked up to her and drowned out her blabbering. How difficult could it be to run a B-rate clothing store, let alone direct people through it? As she talked, he laughed on the inside. Shinji would be so proud of him…all he did was talk to her, and she offered him full-time access to the target's setting as well as the target herself.

Congratulations, Haruka Spring. You just hired a mass murderer.

* * *

The clock at the assassins' temporary home chimed six times, and Shinji was already growing patient. He was eager to hear how he was right about the fundamentals being the best route. What was with all this intricate crap? It's a simple task. He couldn't understand why simple situations were approached with such complicated solutions.

The door opened, and along came Satoshi.

"Well?" Shinji immediately asked.

"…I don't think you want to hear."

"On the contrary."

Shinji knew that his naïve little brother was so happy about this girl yesterday, which meant he wasn't focusing on the mission at all. Now that he was morose and blasé, he was now beginning to make progress.

At last.

"It wasn't good Shinji, from any perspective." Satoshi said.

"What do you mean?"

Before Satoshi could elaborate, Shuu burst through the door, grinning like a fool. Shinji cringed at the sight.

"What're you so happy about?" Satoshi asked.

"No time." Shinji said, walking to the door. "We need to go."

"Where are we going?" Satoshi asked.

Shinji stopped, sighed, and turned around. "We're going to the strip club."

"All RIGHT!" Shuu exclaimed.

Shinji roughly pushed the green-haired man's shoulder, not appreciating the childish comment.

"Why are we going?" Satoshi asked while following Shinji out the door.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this…" Shinji began.

"What?" The two other brothers asked.

"…I need your help."

* * *

The boys are back in town? Maybe, maybe not.

Hey y'all! Welcome to another rushed chapter! :)

If you've read my other updated story **I Don't Want A Fighter, **you will have already known that I have my own laptop now, meaning that I have much easier access to Fanfiction, and it's S.U.M.M.E.R...so more updates! :D

Wait...SHINJI NEEDS HELP?

Oh man. These girls are giving our favorite guys a run for their money!

...Or are they?

~Im-A-Horror-Freak :)


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